


(Our) Limited Humanity

by galacticcore



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Leon and Claire go together, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Trans Leon S. Kennedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:02:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 36,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21529495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticcore/pseuds/galacticcore
Summary: Leon S. Kennedy received an alarming call from the Raccoon City Police Department, ordering him to stay away.One week later, he decided that he would break his first official order and headed toward the silent Midwestern city.This lead to his life changing in more ways than one.(Novelization of RE2 Remake story line.)
Relationships: Leon S. Kennedy/Mr. X | Tyrant T-00
Comments: 89
Kudos: 163





	1. THE BEGINNING

**Author's Note:**

> title and summary subject to change. tags and characters will be added as they appear... but expect all of them since this is a novelization.
> 
> also no beta.... whoops

Leon thought that Missouri would look a lot nicer if he could actually see anything.

Rain pounded against the windshield of his car as he drove down the dimly lit road. Streetlights passed overhead as the radio played some generic butt rock through the blown out speakers, the fuzzy sound helping mask the singers annoying voice. It almost made the musician bearable.

Almost. But it was better than nothing.

Leon had to squint his eyes to try and distinguish the many potholes in the darkness. He drove under the posted speed limit, trying to edge his car past the cracks and holes in the pouring rain. It would be just his luck to have to change a tire in this weather.

He didn’t need anymore distractions. He's on a mission right now.

His eyes flickered over to the R.P.D. folder in his passenger seat. It was close to bursting open, a string wrapped around it to prevent its many papers from spilling out. Inside are all the related items he collected or received for the last few months; letters of recommendation, (many) rule books, a copy of his final exam results from the police academy, pamphlets, a letter of acceptance-

And a messily written transcript of the phone call he got one week ago.

Leon twisted his hands on the steering wheel as he remembered it. 

He had been donating some of his belongings away, as they all would not fit in his car, and he was too poor to afford a moving truck. He would worry about things like furniture when he got a place in Raccoon City. When he got back inside, his landline had been ringing. He had sat down on the window sill, leaning against the glass as he picked up the phone.

“-ick up, c’mon, Dammit-”

“Hello?” He asked, interrupting them.

He heard a crash in the background.

“Fuck- Leon, don't say anything, just listen. Don't come to Raccoon City-”

...Huh?

“What? Who is this?”

Another crash. It sounded closer.

“-Stay the hell away-”

Leon had heard the distinct sound of something being scraped. It echoed through the phone, hurting his ears. But he couldn't pull away.

“-repeat, do NOT come to Raccoon City, that's an order!”

The scraping sound stopped abruptly. The sudden silence was then replaced by the sound of something breaking.

“Oh, no.”

The person on the other end then ended the call. All Leon was left with was the beeping of the phone as he sat on the window sill. He had been so confused, the conversation echoing through his brain. He had tried calling back multiple times, with no luck. Eventually, it would go straight to voicemail, like someone had unplugged the phone.

It made him feel even more uneasy when he learned that the number was from the Raccoon City Police Department.

He wrote down the entire conversation on a slip of paper, memorializing it so he couldn't say he was just sleep deprived and imagined it happened. 

Leon had spent the entire night awake, thinking about what to do on his frameless mattress, one of the few things left in his bare apartment. The morning sun came, and he decided that, for now, he would stay away. 

However, he had become effectively homeless that morning. His lease had run out, as he had been expecting to be in Raccoon City that day. He then spent the next few days jumping between acquaintances couches and sleeping in his car, going to the local library and trying to find out any news about the city. Going to phone booths and calling the number back, hoping that someone would answer, and say that the call was some sort of weird prank and that he was actually in trouble for being unfashionably late for his new position.

No one ever answered.

…

It was on September 29th when he decided he was going anyway, orders be damned. He was tired of the radio silence. He had become more and more anxious as time carried on, thinking about how stressed the person on the other line had sounded.

How scared they were when they heard something break. Something like glass shattering.

So there he was, the only things to his name being his car, the folder, a vial of testosterone and some disposable needles in a shoe box underneath the seat, and Matilda.

His eyes drifted down to his dashboard, seeing the orange “GAS” symbol light up. He had just seen a sign for a gas station up the road… May as well stop by, there might be a protein bar with his name on it, too. 

A minute later, he turned into the gas station and stopped in front of a self serve pump. The chilly late September air nipped his face as he stepped out of the car, looking around. The gas station was eerily quiet as he put the pump into his gas tank.

“No ones around?” He asked himself. He instantly felt dumb asking that question out loud, it’s a gas station in the middle of the Midwest at night, of course-

His head traveled to the left to see a police cruiser with both doors thrown open.

… Ok, that's weird.

“That's weird-”

Leon jumped when he heard something shattering nearby, the sound seeming extra loud in the silence.

And it sounded like it came from inside the gas station.

This sets alarms off in Leon's head. Leon stepped around the front of his car with precise steps as he started to walk to the door. Blood covered the ground, still wet and fresh. There are footprints in it, sprinkling the lot that head straight to the door. 

He stepped around the blood, careful not to track any as he approached the door. The door creaked as he slowly opened it, poking his head inside.

Opening it fully, he asked, “Hello? Anyone there?”

No one answered. Of course. 

He looked down, noticing a flashlight on the floor. He reached down and picked it up, feeling the cool metal against his palm. He scanned the floor in front of the nearest aisle, seeing containers and bottles knocked off a shelf, covered in blood.

“Somethings not right…”

Although Leon didn't have to be a cop to know that.

He stood up straight, spotting a trail of blood down the aisles. As he followed it, trying to make his footsteps as quiet as possible, he heard the telltale sounds of a struggle nearby. He walked faster-

And shined his flashlight onto a man sitting down, bleeding profusely from his neck.

He felt cold dread fill him as he ran up to the injured man, kneeling down by his side, “Are you alright?!”

His worried face contorted the more he stared at the fresh blood slipping through the downed officers fingers. He instinctively reached out with his right hand, applying more pressure to the wound over the other man's hand. He felt the man's body twitch and heave as he struggled to breathe, the warm blood staining his palm as it dripped onto the cuff of his jacket. Help. He needed to get help. Fuck, he saw a payphone outside, didn't he?

Leon is taken out of his thoughts as the officer slowly raised his free arm, pointing to the doorway next to them. Pointing to the struggle nearby, no doubt.

He looked back down at the man next to him. He needed immediate medical help, but if a suspect was still here, he needed to apprehend them first. He would risk others getting needlessly hurt if he didn't. That was basic police protocol.

Leon could feel the blood squirt onto his hand to the beat of the man's heartbeat. 

Leon stood up, retracting his hand away. He looked down at the officer, “Don't move… I’ll be back for you.”

The man did not look up at him. His arm fell down to his side as he struggled to take deep breaths. 

Leon stepped around him and went down the hallway. As he passed boxes and crates, the sounds of a struggle became more defined. Grunts and curses came from the dark doorway, part way open.

He could feel the blood on his hand stick to the door as he pushed it open.

A police officer was illuminated by his flashlight, attempting to restrain someone against the back wall. He had their arm twisted around their back with one hand, the other gripping their shoulder. 

The person against the wall struggled, causing the officer to push down harder, “Stop moving!”

“Officer, do you need help?”

The officer looked back at him, squinting his eyes against the light from Leon's flashlight. He took a hand away from the suspect in a momentary lapse of judgement, raising his palm to Leon, “Stay back, sir, I got this-”

That was all it took.

The person twisted around suddenly, growling as they shoved the officer off of them. The officer stumbled and hit the ground, grunting in pain which soon turns into panicked yelps as the person landed on top of them. They grabbed the officer's head, shoving it further to the side-

“Hey, hey! Get off him, right now!”

The panicked noises turned to screams as the person lowered their head and ripped a chunk out of the officers neck.

Oh, God.

Leon is frozen watching the officer shriek in agony as the suspect sank their teeth into his flesh, shredding tendons and muscles. Blood squirted into the air, coating the floor and nearby racks. 

The still warm blood on his hand contrasted with how cold the rest of his body felt.

The suspect growled as they dug deeper into the officers neck and ripped out another meaty chunk. Then they looked up at Leon, as if just now noticing he was there.

The suspect was male.

He was also missing half the flesh off of his face.

His hair hung in greasy, limp strands against his forehead as his grey skin dripped with blood. His lips curled, showing more bloody teeth as he snarled at Leon with his mouth full of human flesh. He took in his form as he stood shakily over the crumpled body of the officer.

Leon jolted, coming out of his fear induced shock. He raised Matilda, having had it concealed within his waistband. He thanked himself quietly for not hesitating as he ordered, “Freeze!”

The man did not listen. He took a step toward Leon.

Leon clicked the safety off, “I’ll shoot!”

The man ignored his words. He took another step forward, raising his hand.

Leon aimed for the chest, and fires.

Blood spurted out of the mans torso, splattering the floor with even more blood. His shirt started to grow red as the man looked down for just a moment, taking in the red spot forming on his clothes.

He picked his head back up and made toward Leon again.

What the fuck?

Leon shoots again. The bullet pierced directly where the man's heart should be. But it seemed to have no effect, only stunning him momentarily.

He cursed under his breath, and aimed for the head.

The man's head jerked back from the bullet, stumbling backwards from the force. Boxes against the wall fall as the man landed on them, sliding down to the ground in a bloody heap. Leon approached the prone figure, gun still raised, and shined the flashlight on his face.

His eyes were wide open, but did not move under the harsh light. He was dead.

Leon lowered his gun and released a shaky breath. He stepped around the man, kneeling down next to his fellow officers body. His fingers pressed into the uninjured side of his neck as he felt for a pulse. 

He didn't find one. The officer was dead, too.

Leon drew his hand back, cursing as he stood. This is not how he expected his first day to go... watching someone get their throat ripped out by another person-

Oh shit, he had nearly forgotten the other officer out at the storefront. He needed to get an ambulance out here. And more officers. This was officially a crime scene now. He tried to avoid stepping in any blood splatters on the ground and ran to the door, pushing it open with his sleeve as to not get any more fingerprints on it. He reached the end of the hall swiftly and attempted to push open the next door-

Only for it to stay shut. 

“What the-”

He tried again, harder this time. No luck, but he swore he heard a groan on the other side as the door creaked. The officer must have closed it behind him.

“Hey!” Leon shouted, “What’re you doing?!”

No response. Shit.

He needed to get out of here. The man had probably passed out on the other side, delirious from blood loss. That would explain why he closed the door and didn't respond. He needed a blood transfusion _yesterday_. Leon ran back to the crime scene, turning his head back and forth trying to find another way out. He spotted a door he missed earlier out of the corner of his eye, but when he went to it and tried to open, he found it locked as well.

“Jesus… There has to be a key around here somewhere, right?” he asked himself. This is getting ridiculous. It seems everything was trying to get in the way of him doing his job.

He opened the lockers next to him, but they had nothing inside. He spied an overhead light through the shelves, however, and went towards it. 

The smell of blood filled his nose again as he stepped around the two bodies on the ground.

Under the overhead light was a small table, covered in various papers and other office supplies. The wall was covered in wrinkled posters of scantily clad women, some more faded than others. But in the middle of the wall, directly under the light and next to all the posters, was a lone key. 

Jackpot. He grabbed the key and stuffed it in his jacket pocket, then turned around and headed for the door. Time to get out of here-

A groan.

He stopped. Was he… imagining that?

He took another step forward-

Only to hear another groan. It was at his feet.

Leon looked down. 

The man he shot in the head was looking at his leg. He could see the blood dribbling from the bullet hole in his forehead, mixing with the blood of the officers on his mouth.

Leon was too shocked to move.

This man was still alive. 

He shot this man in the fucking head. With a gun. But he was still alive.

He thought he was going to be sick.

Leon was drawn out of his thoughts as he felt a tight grip on his ankle, followed by a snarl.

“Shit!”

Leon attempted to free his leg from the man's hand, shaking it in his grasp, but is unable to escape. The man growled more at the struggle, and dragged his leg closer to his mouth. Leon took Matilda out again and aimed it at the man’s head at his feet.

“Stop! I’ll- I’ll shoot again!”

The man's eyes flickered upwards at the words. Only for an instant, but Leon's stomach churned at the sight.

They were milky and cloudy, covered in something akin to cataracts as he eyed Leon's leg like a piece of meat.

His eyes were dead, but he was still alive.

The man snarled again, and bit his leg as hard as he could from the awkward angle.

Leon yelled, his struggle renewed as he felt the man's teeth struggle to go through the denim. The mans other hand joined the first on his calf and yanked Leon closer, nearly causing him to fall. The teeth started to go through his denim, trying to dig into his skin, and he looked at the officer on the ground, his throat ripped wide open-

Leon shot the man in the head twice, in quick succession.

The bullets throttled the man's head, causing him to release his teeth as he recoiled from the force. Leon tried to step back, but his grip was still tight, and the man groaned as he attempted to take a chunk out of Leon's leg again. He fired another shot, this time causing brain matter to gush out of his skull. It splattered on the floor and his jeans as the man grew still once more, releasing Leon from his iron grip.

This wasn't real. This couldn't possibly be real. What the fuck is happening.

Leon forced himself away from the grisly scene to unlock the nearby door. He saw the officer from earlier struggle to stand at the other end of the store, and he nearly shouted for him, but his words were covered by the loud sound of a nearby shelf falling over. He looked to his left, seeing another man attempting to stand as well. He had the same eyes as the other man from earlier.

Leon ran past him, grabbing the remaining officer by the arm. 

“Sir, we have to leave, now!”

The officer looked him in the eye for the first time.

His eyes were same as the others.

Leon gasped, letting go of his grip and stepped back. The man lurched forward after him, blood spilling out of his mouth and the open wound on his neck. 

Leon only hesitated for a moment before shooting him in the eye. 

The man fell to the ground with a groan, the remains of his eye now a gory hole in his skull. However, he still tried to reach for Leon from the floor. Leon jumped over his flailing arms and ran to the door, nearly tripping over another person moaning after him. 

He didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. Stopping means death. He needed to get the hell out of here.

He reached the door, but before he can pull it open, a girl stumbled in. He raised his handgun, pointing it at her. She raised her hands over her head, fear filling her eyes.

The first normal eyes he's seen. She's not one of them. 

“Don’t shoot!” She yelled.

A shadow behind her moved closer. It raised its hands-

“Get down!”

She ducked, and he takes the shot. The man recoiled from the bullet and fell to the ground. He stepped outside with his gun still raised, his eyes drifting to her for a moment to watch her stand beside him and raise her own gun.

“You alright?” he asked.

She nodded, “Yeah… I think so. Thanks.”

His eyes went back to the parking lot as he said, “You can thank me later, when we’re safe.”

She turned her head to follow his line of sight. She gulped.

“Holy shit…”

Holy shit, indeed. 

The previously abandoned parking lot steadily filled with moaning and writhing bodies. They stumbled, arms outstretched as they slowly approached Leon and the woman next to him. Shit, his car was right in the middle of the swarm, and they couldn’t go back inside, what the hell should he do-

On cue, a man slammed his face against the gas station door and snarled, making Leon and the woman jump. His nose was missing, smearing blood and mucus on the glass door as he tried breaking through to get to them.

Shitshitshit.

Leon whipped his head around, hearing the groans and cries even closer now, and his eyes land on the next best thing.

The police cruiser from earlier was still there, lights on and doors wide open. The keys must have been in the ignition, leaving the car on but not running.

It’s the only chance they had, unless they want to somehow get past all the other people to get to his car.

He turned his head to her, and their eyes locked.

“Come on!”

He darted toward the car, with her following close behind. He ducked under a woman's reaching hands, and he heard her grunt as she shoved a man out of her way. He didn’t take a breath until he's in the driver's seat, slamming his car door. An instant later, she planted herself in the passenger seat, and he cranked the car and threw it in reverse as she closed her door. He narrowly avoided hitting someone as he turned the car around and hit the gas pedal, taking off out of the parking lot and down the road toward Raccoon City.

He didn’t take another breath till he looked into the rear view mirror and saw that no one was chasing after them.

He tried to relax himself, sighing as he turned on the windshield wipers and wrung his hands on the steering wheel.

The woman next to him shifted restlessly in her seat before she asked, “What the hell is going on?”

Leon wished he knew. He could handle this better if he knew.

“I don’t know… Hopefully, they’ll have some answers at the police station.”

She raised her eyebrows in shock, “Wait, you're a cop?

He took his eyes off the road for a moment, “Yeah, Leon Kennedy. You are...?”

“Claire- Claire Redfield.”

He nodded. They both fell silent for a few moments. Leon's mind was racing as he tried to think of a follow up question. Maybe she lived nearby? If he can get more information out of her about the events here, he can try and formulate theories as to what's happening…

“Live around here?”

She shook her head, “No.”

Damn. There goes that plan…

Claire continues, “I’m looking for my brother. He’s a cop, too.”

“Well,” he said, “It's a good thing we found each other, then.”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel.

“I don’t know what to expect anymore…”

Claire gave him an understanding look, but didn’t say anything. 

The rain against the windshield became steady white noise as Leon drove down the dark road towards the station.

\-----------------------

The drive toward Raccoon City was silent for a while. Leon didn’t try and make meaningless conversation with Claire. It was obvious to him that she was in shock just as much as he was about the situation, so he didn’t push her to try and talk to fill the silence.

Eventually, they had come across a car on the side of the road. Leon had started to slow down, stopping beside the car that had veered off into the grassy shoulder. Claire had gasped, covering her mouth.

“Jesus...”

Leon's stomach lurched at the sight of a dead man in the driver's seat, blood covering the windows and upholstery of the car. He had still been wearing his seat belt when he died, his throat torn open by the ravenous woman in the seat next to him. She strained against her own seat belt, trying to get her mouth as close to him as possible, but she could not figure out how to get it off. Instead, her bloody hands ripped chunks of flesh off, shoveling them into her mouth.

… He didn't stop after that.

The amount of cars increased the closer they got to the city, some parked on the side of the road, some stopped in the middle, some even crashed and burning. Leon eventually had to slow the cruiser down to safely maneuver through them, trying to recall his mental map of the city from the first (and only) time he visited.

The city skyline slowly grew, taking up more of the night sky until they found themselves driving through downtown Raccoon City. As they drove to the police station, slowing to a crawl as Leon struggled to avoid cars, an announcement played on loop every minute or so.

“Attention all citizens: due to the citywide outbreak, you are advised to take shelter at the Raccoon City police station. Free food and medical supplies will be provided to everyone in need.”

Leon turned right, and let out a small sigh when he saw that the road ahead looked clear, all cars parked on both sides of the road to not impede traffic. He was able to speed up a bit, feeling more confident the closer he knew they were getting to the station. He was certain the station was just a minute or so away by car.

“Oh my God, this is so unreal…”

Leon was brought out of his thoughts at the words. That had been the first thing Claire had said in quite a while.

“The police station’s not much farther. They’ll know something.”

“Yeah, but…” Claire turned to face him, fixing him with a worried look, “What if we’re the only ones? What if there’s no survivors-”

Leon shook his head, “No, There’s survivors. It's a big city…”

He didn't want to think about that. There had to be people who survived this whole mess, people who knew what the hell was going on here. There was no way that they were the only ones.

He didn’t want to think about what it meant if she was right.

“... There has to be.”

Claire looked like she wanted to say something, but bit her tongue. She shifted in her seat, turning to face the front as Leon drove forward. But it wasn't a few seconds after that that they came across a roadblock.

Leon stopped the cruiser in front of a pileup of cars, completely blocking the road. Leon couldn't see any clearing between them, and the concrete barriers painted safety yellow in front of the cars would make it impossible to get past in the cruiser, anyway. He cursed under his breath, then put the car in park and turned it off.

“Looks like we’re walking from here.”

Leon started to unbuckle his seat belt when Claire looked at him and said, “More like running.”

He leaned forward, looking to where Claire had been just a moment ago through the passenger window.

A body laid on the ground, having been thoroughly devoured. Intestines and other organs were strewn across the ground, growing wet and cold in the rain. And above the body, two men were getting up and stumbling towards the police cruiser.

“Yeah, good call-”

A man slammed himself into the driver's window, causing Leon to yell out a “Jesus Christ!” as he smeared blood and gore across the surface, snarling as he tried to get in.

Claire cried out at the same time, a hand beating on the passenger window out of nowhere. The blunt and cracked nails scratched against the glass, making a sharp noise fill the car as the zombie got up. It just a few moments, several more people surrounded the cruiser, shaking and beating the car attempting to get to the two.

“Leon,” Claire yelled, “We gotta back up!”

He didn’t waste time, turning the key still in the ignition and hearing the car roar to life. He looked over his shoulder on instinct-

And saw an eighteen wheeler heading straight for them with no signs of slowing down, mowing down people walking in the street.

Holy shit.

“Holy shit.”

Leon fumbled with the door handle, attempting to open it.

“Claire, get out! Get out NOW!”

They both started shoving their weight against the car doors, trying to force them open. But the people outside pushed back, trying to get inside the car, making it impossible to get out.

“I can’t!” Claire screamed, shoving her shoulder one last time against the passenger door.

Leon could see the panicked yet hopeless look in her eyes as she said that. He looked back over his shoulder again, watching the tractor trailer get even closer, the headlights nearly blinding him.

Oh, Christ.

Leon fumbled with his seat belt, buckling back up as he yelled out, “Hold on!”

Not a moment later, he heard the shriek of metal on metal and glass shattering as the eighteen wheeler swerved to the side, hitting cars parked on the side of the road before hitting the back of the cruiser.

He felt glass shards cover him as his head slammed into the steering wheel, making him see stars. He was sure that the both of them screamed, but he couldn't hear anything over the sound of his ears ringing.

The car was forced forward, crashing through the concrete barrier and other vehicles as the eighteen wheeler behind them started to fall to the side and skid on the wet asphalt before coming to a stop. The cruiser hit one last car, stopping from a head on collision, causing Leon to hit his head one last time.

He sloppily undid his seat belt, dazed and weak from being whipped around in his seat and the head injury he no doubt had, and opened the car door. He landed on the ground and vomited immediately.

What a fucking useless seat belt that was. 

He wiped the vomit from his mouth with the back of his hand.

Although, it did prevent him from flying out the window. So that was something.

Leon struggled to stand, stumbling forward a few steps and turning around as his head pounded-

The police cruiser exploded suddenly, sending metal shards into the air violently as he screamed out, “WHOA!”

He covered his face with his arms, trying to protect himself from any projectiles. He can feel some fly past, but thankfully, none hit him. After a few moments, he lowered his arms, looking at the car engulfed in flames.

His eyes drifted to the tractor trailer behind the car.

He saw gasoline pouring out and mixing with the rain, creeping closer and closer to the police cruiser.

“Oh, no.”

He only made it a few steps before the tractor trailer exploded as well. The explosion was much more intense and violent than the one a few seconds ago, sending him flying. He rag dolled in the air, unable to do anything as his back slammed into another car. Pain coursed through him, and he cried out in agony as he fell to the ground.

Of course, first his head hurt, now his whole body hurts, too. But the pain meant he wasn’t paralyzed from the impact. He very well could have been from the force. Leon had to start looking at the positives in order to not be dragged down by the negatives.

And in the past thirty minutes of his life, there had been a _lot_ of negatives.

Leon forced himself off the ground, groaning as he felt something in his shoulders pop. He lifted a hand to his face, attempting to see past the growing flames. His mind catched up to him at the sight.

Where was Claire?

“CLAIRE?!”

No response. The only sound he heard was the fire crackling under the rainfall.

“CLAIRE, YOU OK!?”

His heart sunk as he didn’t hear anything again, and he almost yelled again-

“YEAH!”

Oh, thank you, Christ. He sighed in relief at the sound of her voice.

“I’M ALRIGHT!” She continued, “HOW ABOUT YOU!?”

Leon almost responded, but he heard a snarl nearby. He looked around, seeing multiple people shamble toward him.

Fuck.

“I CAN’T STAY HERE!” he reached for his gun as he yelled out, “IT'S NOT SAFE!”

“GO ON AHEAD! I’LL MEET YOU AT THE STATION!”

“I’LL BE THERE-”

… Wait.

They can’t split up out here in the streets. The roads seem completely infested from his side, and it surely was on Claire’s as well. The station was right around the corner from his perspective, but who knows when they would be able to meet up? Claire's path might take her longer, depending on the obstacles. It would be safer for the two of them to go together as well. Two guns are better than one. But how would he be able to get her to his side?...

His eyes lit up as he spied the cars next to and in front of him. Some of which aren’t on fire, only having been moved or thrown around from the earlier accident and explosions.

He had an idea.

“WAIT!”

Leon ran forward, ducking underneath a mans raised arms so he could jump onto the hood of a car. He saw Claire with her gun raised at a nearby woman groaning as she approached.

“OVER HERE!”

She looked over at him, and he shouted out, “C’MON!”

The words spurred her into action, figuring out what he meant. She slid and climbed over the wet hoods of the cars, nearly falling between them as she moved from one to another, but she eventually reached Leon after a few tense moments, and he lifted her up onto the car that he stood on.

Leon started to smile at her, but was cut off as he felt a tight grip on his ankle, and he cried out-

A gunshot, and the grip loosened. Leon looked between the body that drops to the ground and Claire’s drawn gun.

“Thanks.”

She gave him a small smile as she said, “We’re not safe just yet.”

Her smile made him feel hope. More hope then he had felt all night. It made him feel like things will be ok after all this fucking bullshit. They would get to the police station in one piece, and they would ride this out for as long as this takes.

Even more people began to approach the car, attracted from the yelling and the gunshot. They didn't waste anymore time, looking between each other once more and coming to an unspoken (yet obvious) agreement before jumping off the car into the night, Leon leading the way to the station.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments always welcome :)


	2. THE STATION

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edit 12/20/19: fixes a bunch of fucking typos relating to pov in both chapters. jesus christ. im not a writer if you could not tell. hopefully it wont be as bad in the future and i hope to upload next chapter next week since i have like 4 days off in a row

Leon slammed the front gate to the police station shut. He quickly grabbed the security bar, sliding the wet metal through the latches and locking it into place. Not a second later after backing away, hands and bodies shove against the gates, trying to force their way past.

He took another step back and surveyed his work. The gates creaked, but held steady. They wouldn't be budging anytime soon.

He heard a sigh next to him.

Claire wiped her fingers over her forehead, moving some stray wet bangs sticking to her face behind her ear. He could see the tension leaving her shoulders, watching the fruitless struggle of the people pushing against the gates.

The wind picked up, causing the rain to hit them dead on. Raindrops hit him in the eyes, making him flinch and turn his head, blinking rapidly. Claire didn't fare much better than him, raising a hand to try and protect her face from the cold rain.

“Think it’s time we went inside.” Claire said.

“Yeah.”

They quickly ascended the stairs behind them and stood underneath the large police station sign, trying to get excess water off of their faces and hair unsuccessfully. Leon was still attempting to get mud off the bottom of his boots on the outdoor mat when Claire opened the door, causing him to stop and follow. Mud was probably the last thing the officers were worried about right now.

The first thing that struck Leon was how empty the main hall was.

The only time he had been there, it had been bustling with life. Officers performing their duties, carrying paperwork or talking with civilians. While not as busy as some bigger cities stations were, it had its fair share of activity.

But now, it was seemingly abandoned. Boxes and chairs were thrown around on the ground haphazardly, adding chaos to the elegant layout of the main hall that he remembered.

“Hello?” Claire asked.

…

No one responded.

Claire looked at Leon nervously before she raised her voice and yelled, “Anyone there?!”

Silence. To add insult to injury, her voice echoed slightly throughout the main hall, showing them both just how empty and lifeless it was.

How could the police station be this empty? Seemingly, every survivor in Raccoon City should be here right now, alongside the entire police force…

Leon felt the knot in his chest tighten as his brain racked itself for a reason as to why no one was here. Maybe they were somewhere else in the station?

Leon looked at Claire, “Let's have a look around. Maybe they went to a safer area in here.”

Claire nodded, “Good idea.”

Leon passed the front desk and headed up the left ramp, passing an assortment of couches and stretchers. He couldn't help but notice bloody footprints covering the floor, going in all directions. He gulped. Not good. 

He tried to open the door to his left which has a large blue spade on it, but found it locked. Dammit. 

Claire had already started to ascend the stairs, but stopped and asked, “Locked?”

“Yep.” He replied, climbing the stairs as well. They met at the top in front of a lion statue, paw raised on top of a large shield. Leon would have called it majestic if it wasn't surrounded by chairs and boxes against the windows beside it to seemingly keep the now gone occupants inside safe. Rain pounded against the windows, creating white noise in the otherwise silent police station.

“How about I take the right hallway, and you take the left?” Claire asked.

“Alright, but yell if the door is unlocked. I’ll do the same.”

“Got it.”

Leon went to the left, passing more leather couches and stopped in front of the next door. It was also decorated with the same blue spade as the one before it on the floor below. Leon hoped that this one will be unlocked, unlike the last one, but that hope died quickly when the door knob doesn't budge.

“Fuck,” he whispered, “really?”

He saw something out of the corner of his eye at the end of the hall on the very last couch. He walked toward it, finding himself smiling as he saw it was a box of ammunition for his handgun. He sorely needed the bullets.

“Hey, Leon! This one is unlocked!”

He ran to Claire at the words, passing the second locked door and Lion statue and stopped next to her in the other hallway. Her hand still on the knob, she turned it again and opened the door. They both entered a waiting area, sparsely decorated save for a table covered in magazines, a potted plant, and a vending machine in the corner.

“Oh, look!” Claire said with a small smile as she went up to the potted plant and… starts picking leaves off of it?

The confusion was clear on his face as Claire looked at him, leaves in hand. She raised a brow as she asked, “You don’t know what this is?”

He shook his head.

She stepped closer to him, raising the leaves to his face, “This is green herb. It grows in the nearby mountains. Its famous around here for healing injuries.”

“Ah. That does sound useful.”

“You've really never heard of this before? How long have you been working here?”

“Uh.”

Shit.

“Well… Today.”

Claire was silent.

“Today was my first day.”

Claire was only quiet for a moment before she said, “Well, that explains why you looked so lost when we were driving here.”

Leon narrowed his eyes, “I wasn’t lost!”

“Mhm. Sit down, lemme show you this.”

Leon was internally grateful that she didn't seem bothered that he was only a rookie cop. Although, having anyone with you during this whole ordeal was better than none. Especially one who knows how to handle a gun. Experience is but a small bonus.

He sat down on the couch next to her, watching her pick more leaves off the stems and put them into a small tissue. However, sitting down made him realize just how sore he was, especially his back from where he landed against a car from the tractor trailer exploding. He stretched his arms over his head, feeling his shoulders and spine pop from the action, making him groan.

“Yeah, I bet you’re sore, too.” Claire started to dig in her hip pouch on her side, pulling out a first aid spray, “I found this downstairs. We can split it. Where does it hurt the worst?”

Leon found himself taking off his jacket a few moments later, making sure to face away from Claire as he lifted his shirt and undershirt up so she could rub the spray into his back. He felt a bit embarrassed by the situation, but he couldn't afford to let it bother him right now. He sighed as he felt the cool medicine make contact with his skin and start to work its magic. Claire even rubbed it in for a bit to help it be absorbed, which Leon was grateful for, as he didn’t think he could reach some of the spots she was touching effectively.

Leon returned the favor, watching Claire take off her jacket and lift her tank top up. She had apparently landed against a car as well in the explosion. As Leon shook the can, he tried to break the somewhat awkward silence.

“Just our luck, huh?”

“What?”

“Getting injured in the exact same way.”

She let out a laugh, then shivered, feeling the icy spray hit the numerous bruises decorating her back, “Yeah. What a coincidence.”

Leon let the short conversation lull as he rubbed the spray into her back, watching the bruises on her back die down till they were barely visible. Modern medicine was truly amazing.

He pulled his hands away once he felt his work was done, pulling his pant leg up so he could rub the remainder of it on where the man at the gas station tried to bite him-

Claire gasped.

“You got bit?!”

Leon could see the dread plain as day on her face.

He lifted his leg onto the table, trying to alleviate her fear, “Yeah, but it didn’t actually pierce the skin, see? It’s just a bruise.”

Claire looked at the purplish teeth marks on his leg, hand still raised to her mouth, but visibly relaxed once she saw he was telling the truth. 

“Oh… Sorry.”

She leaned back, watching Leon rub the remaining spray onto his leg. Once he was done, he leaned back as well, stretching once more. The first aid spray had truly taken effect now, and Leon could even feel the headache he had from earlier going away. They both needed this short break to recuperate. 

Claire broke the silence soon after.

“Leon?”

“Yeah?”

Claire shifted uncomfortably on the couch next to him.

“I think… I don’t think those are people, anymore.”

Leon blinked.

Claire continued, “I think they’re zombies.” She started to wave her hands in front of her, “I know that sounds crazy, but-”

“I know.”

She stopped, looking surprised.

“I… think they are too.”

He had not wanted to think about it before. It seemed impossible. Hell, it WAS impossible. But it was the first thing that popped up in the back of Leon’s mind when he shot that man in the head at the gas station and he didn’t go down immediately. He just… couldn’t entertain the thought. Thinking about it made it real. He had been hoping that there was some other explanation, something that actually made sense and wasn't something that he read about in cheesy horror books. But watching people being eaten on the streets, their grey and seemingly rotten skin, their dull and milky eyes…

He knew it was real.

The silence was nearly deafening in the waiting room. Neither of them moved for several moments until Claire got up and tried to open the next door, bearing the same spade as the other doors Leon had tried. He was not surprised when it didn't open.

Leon got up and looked behind the desk counter in the corner of the room and found a safe. He tried opening it, but it was locked as well. He looked on the desk for some sort of clue as to what the code was, but didn't find one. Damn.

Claire showed him a pamphlet she found on the desk, talking about how the police station was at one point a museum.

“Who turns a museum into a police station?”

He shrugged. He found it a bit weird when he first heard that, but didn’t give it much thought. It was probably cheaper to renovate the building than build a new one from scratch.

They exited the room, going back downstairs. Leon went to the metal gate to the right of the front door, reading the cardboard sign taped to it that said “KEEP OUT!”

Old, dried blood stained the ground underneath the metal gate. He didn't have a good feeling about going through here, but the other gate’s control box was covered in duct tape, and neither him nor Claire had a knife…

“Leon! Quick, over here!”

Leon turned, running toward Claire, hunched over a computer behind the front desk. She moved aside, letting him see the screen.

On the screen was a security camera feed from somewhere inside the station, featuring an officer looking back and forth anxiously. Leon's heart jumped in his chest. He knew there were others!

“David! Marvin! You there?!” The man yelled, looking up at the camera. 

He grabbed a small notebook, raising it up to the camera, “I found a way out! It’s in here!”

A shadow from the corner of the screen emerged, and the elation Leon felt was quickly squashed. A man approached the officer, reaching with outstretched hands toward him-

No, not a man. A zombie. That's what they are. They aren't… They aren't people. He couldn't let himself think like that anymore.

The zombie came closer, and the officer fired a shot from his handgun, only temporarily stunning it before it grabbed him and attempted to take a chunk out of him. The officer was able to shove it off of him, losing his flashlight in the process as it fell to the floor. The zombie got up, trailing after the man who yelled out to the camera, “Send reinforcements! East Hallway!”

They both go off screen, the only thing heard being a few more gunshots before the feed falls silent. Claire double clicked on the feed, pulling up a map of the police station. One part of the map flashed red, labelled “East Hallway”. It seemed to be accessible through the metal gate Leon was looking at just a moment ago.

Claire looked at Leon, “We gotta help that guy!”

He nodded, pointing to the gate, “Over there!”

They run to the gate, waiting anxiously for the gate to raise as Leon threw the switch. The gate started to move, but stopped a quarter of the way. Leon threw the switch again, letting the gate fall back down, but when it raised up again it stopped in the same place as before.

“Guess we’re gonna have to crawl.”

Claire looked down at the blood, making a face. Leon couldn't say he was excited, either.

Leon went first, crawling forward on his stomach. He stuck his head underneath the gate, waving the flashlight back and forth. More blood covered the ground and wall, making Leon start to feel sick from the concentrated smell. He aimed the flashlight to his left, looking down the dark hall. When he didn't see anything, he crawled underneath the gate completely and stood.

“All clear.”

Claire followed after him, gagging when the smell of old blood hit her. He offered her a hand, and helped her get to her feet.

They wasted no time running down the hall, water splashing with each step as they traveled down the wet corridor, guns drawn. They couldn't take the chance of being caught off guard, now that they knew that zombies were inside the building.

Leon turned the corner first, only to be stopped by an overturned locker blocking their way. However, he was able to move it easily with Claire's help, shoving it against the wall. They continued down the dark hall, turning down another corner to the end of the hall.

They stopped in their tracks at the sight.

Multiple bodies covered the ground, their corpses covered in dark, dried blood. Gore and organs stained the floor and walls, painting a graphic picture of how violently they died. 

Claire gagged, “Ugh, oh my god…”

Leon took a breath through his nose, and instantly regretted it. The smell of rotten meat and blood filled his nostrils, making him gag as well. He threw his free hand up to his face to try and mask the smell.

He heard the banging before he heard the screams.

It came from his left, sounding like someone hitting their fists against a wall, making both him and Claire jump from the sudden noise. 

“OPEN UP! HURRY! OPEN UP!”

Leon's eyes widened, turning his gaze to Claire. She looked just as surprised and worried as he felt.

“That’s him!” She exclaimed.

Avoiding the bodies littering the ground, they rushed into the Watchman’s room. The banging continued, the man slamming his fists against the metal gate desperately as he screamed, “OPEN THIS GODDAMN DOOR!”

Claire reached the gate first, lifting it as she said, “We’ll get you out!”

A hand poked out from underneath the gate, clutching something. Leon grabbed the man's wrist without thinking, trying to pull him forward. The officers head and other hand came out soon after, scraping his nails against the floor as he tried to crawl towards safety.

Claire groaned, the strain from holding the gate starting to become too much to bear. Her arms shook as she lifted the gate a few inches higher.

“I can’t hold this much longer!”

Leon's grip on the mans wrist tightened at the words.

“Give me your other hand!”

The officer, still on his stomach, let his other hand be grabbed by Leon, who tried pulling him forward with all his strength.

Not a moment later, the man screamed in agony as blood splashed from underneath the gate.

Leon heard the snarling on the other side of the gate as the unseen zombie tugged him toward itself and tore into the man's clothes and flesh, making a meal out of the still living officer.

Leon tugged harder as he yelled, “Hang in there!”

The officer did not stop screaming, yanking himself out of his grip as he managed to flip himself over, trying to get away from the zombie. Leon grabbed his flailing arms, tugging as hard as he could-

Only to pull the top half of the man out to their side.

The officers screams echoed in Leon's mind as he watched the legless man writhe, his intestines and other organs falling out onto the dirty ground. The hot stench of his blood filled the room, making the horror Leon felt all the more visceral. 

Leon squeezed the officers hand, trying to let him know he wasn't alone. It was all he could do as he watched the man die seconds later, the sudden drop in blood pressure killing him quickly.

He stared into the officers eyes. The officer stared back, unblinking in death.

Leon felt like he was going to be sick.

He looked up at Claire. She had dropped the gate the moment she saw the man had been torn in half, bringing her hands to her mouth as she watched the man bleed out. She met Leon's gaze, eyes filled with horror.

Suddenly, the zombie on the other side started to beat against the metal gate, growling as it tried to get to the rest of its meal, breaking the two of them out of their daze. Claire, with shaking hands, slowly reached down and grabbed the small object the man had been holding. She put it in her jacket pocket after looking at it for a second, and offered Leon her hand. He took it, appreciating the help as he stood on his own shaky legs.

Something started to bang against the Watchman’s room door.

Leon and Claire only had a moment to gather themselves as a zombie broke through the door, stumbling into the room. Its teeth gnashed as it approached the two, blood and spit covering its face.

Leon raised his gun first, delivering two bullets directly to its face, throwing the zombie back a few steps. The zombie was only temporarily stunned, soon lunging over the desk separating it from its prey. Claire screamed, jumping over the body falling to the ground to be by Leon's side as she raised her own handgun.

When the zombie raised its head toward the two from the floor, Leon shot twice more. The zombie fell limp on the ground, and stopped moving.

Leon felt Claire grab his arm, making him look at her.

“We need to get out of here!”

He nodded frantically, leading the way out of the room. Only a few steps out of the room, a window broke, followed by a zombie falling into the hall. 

“Jesus,” Leon cried, “They’re everywhere!”

They ran past it, the splashing of their footsteps covering the moans of the zombie as it tried to follow them down the wet hall. They nearly turned the last corner of the hall when two more zombies appeared, breaking out of a previously boarded up room as they lunged toward the two. Claire shoved one to the side as it stumbled past her, shooting it three times in the head as Leon did the same to the other one. When the zombies fell to the ground, they ran to the first metal gate that they entered from. 

“Go, I’ll cover you!” Leon told Claire. She nodded, getting down on her stomach as she crawled to safety through the dried blood. The two zombies from earlier started to get back up, now joined by the zombie from the window. The three snarled as they came closer to Leon, who was becoming hyper aware of how little bullets he had now. He used his remaining bullets on the two closest zombies, bringing them down once more.

Leon could hear Claire call to him from the other side, signalling to him that she was safe. He quickly got down onto the floor himself, crawling underneath the metal gate-

Only to be grabbed by the third zombie.

Leon cried out, feeling the zombie dig its nails into his legs. He tried to crawl forward more to free himself from its grip but failed, only succeeding in making its nails dig in further as it growled at his feet.

“Claire, help!”

“I’m here!”

She grabbed his arms, tugging him forward harshly enough that its grip was knocked loose. 

It tried to crawl toward them, but someone put their foot on the gates handle and sent it crashing down on the zombies skull, causing bone and brain matter to spurt onto the floor.

… Well, that was helpful. 

Leon blinked, looking up at the person who had a hand in saving him.

A fellow officer stood over him, clutching a bloody wound at his side, but nonetheless offered his free hand down to him.

\-----------------------

Leon listened to Marvin Branagh, the helpful officer, and Claire talk as he changed into the police officer uniform that Marvin had given him. He had stepped around to the storage box at the front desk, not wanting anyone to watch him change, but still allow him to hear any pertinent information. Currently, they were discussing Claire's brother, Chris. Marvin was telling her that he left for Europe weeks ago as far as he knew, causing Claire to pause for a few seconds before saying she was glad he was taking a vacation.

Leon was confused at their apparent lack of communication. Who just decides to take a vacation without telling the people close to them? Claire could be at her home safe right now if she knew he was out of the country… A small part of Leon wished he had a sibling who would risk life and limb just to find him. Must be nice.

He tugged the straps of the kevlar vest on his torso, adjusting them tighter. The added weight was a comfort he needed, knowing that this would help protect him during this shitshow. He had originally offered it to Claire, but he forgot that the weight of it would just slow her down in the long run, even if it did offer extra protection. Leon was used it due to his time at police academy, but civilians would struggle under the extra weight. Claire had agreed with him after trying it on, saying she would want to be able to outrun a zombie if one caught her.

Leon climbed the ramp once he was done, and stood next to Claire.

“Ok, lieutenant, I’m ready.”

Marvin nodded, “Good, cause I’ve got something to show you both.”

He pointed to a page in the notebook that Claire had given him, “That officer you met earlier- Elliot… He thought this secret passageway might do the trick.”

Marvin handed the notebook to him, gripping his injured side from his seat on the couch. Leon took it, careful to avoid the bloody fingerprints that covered it. Claire looked at it next to him, and he angled it so she can get a better look. 

The pages were covered in quick scribblings, doodles of statues littered across the police department with symbols underneath, and a messy map that lead to a parking lot from underneath the Goddess statue.

Leon looked up from the notebook in his hand, “This is good news. We can get you to a hospital.”

Marvin shook his head as he grunted in pain, “No, no, I am not the priority here.”

“Marvin,” Claire stated, “don’t be ridiculous. We can’t just leave you here-”

Marvin cut her off, raising his voice, “Stop.”

He dug his fingers into his side, hissing. He was quiet for a moment, taking in a deep breath before he started speaking again.

“Listen to me. Save yourself. I’d come with you but I’d just slow you down.”

He stood, reaching down to pick up a knife off the couch, “Now, you’ll need this-”

“Lieutenant,” Leon interrupted, “We can’t just-”

“Don’t.”

Marvin stared at him, giving him a look that left him no room to argue. Leon maintained eye contact for a few moments before he reached out for the knife in his hand. As he grabbed it, Marvin tugged, pulling Leon closer to him.

“And don’t make my mistake. If you see one of those things- no matter who they were- you can’t hesitate.”

His eyes flickered back and forth between Claire and Leon as he continued, “You take it out… or you run. Got it?”

Marvin was unable to wait for a verbal answer, however, as he squinted his eyes and cried out, sitting back down on the couch as fresh blood spilled out of his wound. Leon maintained his grip on the knife as he watched the lieutenant groan in pain, wishing he could do something to help him. But he knew he was right, as desperately as he wanted it to not be true, Marvin would just be a hindrance at this rate. He was barely able to help him and Claire move furniture in front of the front door before he had to collapse on the couch in agony.

If- no, _when_ \- they encounter a zombie, Marvin wouldn't be able to run away in time. It made Leon sick to think about, thinking about how bringing a man along to attempt to save him would end up killing him or even hurt himself or Claire. But… he had to. 

All Leon could do was say, “Yes, sir.”

\-----------------------

Leon fitted the medallion from the Lion statue upstairs into one of the holes in front of the Goddess statue, causing part of it to draw into the ground, revealing a door hidden behind metal bars. So Elliot had been right… Leon had remained hopeful that there was a way out of here, but actually seeing it work was another thing.

Leon handed the knife Marvin gave him to Claire as he watched the metal gate rise next to her, waiting for it to stop. Once it did, he headed straight for the green herb sitting on some boxes, picking the leaves off of it like Claire had shown him.

“This is not how I imagined my first day…” He mumbled to himself.

Claire tapped him on the shoulder, handing him several handgun bullets, “Here. Found this behind you.”

Oh, thank Christ. He really needed those. 

“Thanks.”

Once Leon pocketed the leaves and reloaded Matilda, they headed from the reception area into the west hallway. Claire turned on her flashlight first as they wandered slowly down the hall, listening to the rain pour in from a broken window at the far end. The closer they got to turning the corner, the louder they heard radio chatter coming from somewhere, making Leon stop and try and find the source. He clicked on his flashlight, shining it onto the slumped over body of a man in the corner.

He stepped closer, kneeling down next to him to observe the radio clipped to his shirt. He could barely make out what the man on the radio was saying it was breaking up so much. He started to grab the radio, but noticed a deep slash mark etched into the officers face. He reached out for his face, stopping for a moment to consider something about respecting the dead, but pushed the thought away. He needed to see what happened to him… If they wanted to get out of here alive, they needed to know whats coming.

He lifted the officers head up slowly, revealing the deep slash mark had cut straight through his jaw. Long coagulated blood dripped down as Leon's flashlight peered deep into the dead man's open mouth, torn tendons making his mouth hang open limply.

Claire gasped next to Leon as he dropped the man's head.

“What the fuck,” Leon blurted, “What the fuck!?”

Leon stood, looking at Claire. She looked like she was going to vomit, but swallowed roughly, taking a deep breath before grabbing the radio on the mans shirt.

She looked at Leon, “I think I should take this… Might need it.”

He nodded. If they need to split up for some reason, it would be good to have a way to keep in contact.

Claire started to fiddle with the radio, attaching it to her jacket, before stopping. She knelt down next to the man, touching his name badge.

“... Oh, God.”

“What?”

“I…” Claire started, but shook her head, “Just… Look.”

She stood, moving aside to allow Leon to kneel where she had been previously. He shined his flashlight on the dead officers name tag. 

“... M. Branagh?”

That's… weird. Did Marvin have multiple name tags lying around the station? Why would this officer put his name tag on his shirt? That seems-

… Oh.

_Oh._

Leon looked at Claire, realization hitting him. She looked down at him, eyes filled with sorrow.

“Do you think…” Leon asked, “we should tell him?”

She shook her head.

“Marvin… I think he knows.”

Leon did not press the conversation further. He got up and continued down the hall with Claire, thinking about how fucked up the whole thing was.

\-----------------------

The desk that would have been his opened, gifting him and Claire a high capacity magazine and a speed loader, respectively. His eyes drifted up towards the ceiling as he replaced the old magazine with the new one.

The sign _WELCOME LEON_ just reminded him of how he should have come sooner. If he hadn’t waited so long… maybe things could have gone differently. 

They had encountered some zombies not long down afterwards, bursting through the windows as they quickly ran into the next room, grabbing the map of the first floor of the station and some bullets lying on a desk. The zombies had come in after them, and Leon shot them down at the cost of eight bullets. Claire stepped over their corpses to retrieve a note detailing how over the past few days everything went to shit in the station, civilians and officers dying as zombies attacked. His stomach churned thinking back on it.

They had climbed through a broken window in the room to the next hall, Claire immediately shooting a zombie beating against a vending machine, taking it down with a full clip.

The west office was their next destination. Leon had found some gunpowder, alongside a note explaining how to combine gunpowder to make different types of ammunition. That would be useful.

Claire had tried opening a safe inside an attached room, with no luck. The commotion caused two nearby zombies to wake from their fake sleep, and they both made sure they wouldn't be bothering them anytime soon. Leon was starting to run low on ammo again, more so than Claire, and hoped they would find some more gunpowder soon.

They exited the west office, heading into the safety deposit room. The bright overhead lights was a welcome change from the darkness they had been thrown in for the past ten minutes. Claire walked ahead of him, looking inside of the lockers but cursing when none of them open.

Leon started to read a note on the table to the left, talking about how the keypad to the locker terminal was missing some keys and that someone needed to get some spare keys immediately. He looked over his shoulder at the keypad and hummed, seeing that it was missing two keys.

… Hold on. What if...

He walked up to the terminal, pressing the spot where one of the keys was missing. The number two appeared on the terminal screen.

Seems the sensitivity pads still work. That's something, at least.

“Hey, Leon, come over here!”

Leon headed toward the back, stopping beside Claire in front of the weapons locker.

His eyes widened as he took in the sight of a pump action shotgun and grenade launcher hanging inside of the locker, as well as some spare ammunition for both.

“Woah.”

She smiled, “Yeah, woah.”

She nudged her foot against the locker, “We need a key card to open it, though. Hopefully, we’ll find it soon enough.”

He nodded, pointing his hand back behind him, “Well, I have some good news.”

Two hip pouches, a container of gunpowder, a combat knife, some shotgun shells, flame rounds, and a roll of film later, Leon and Claire exited the safety deposit room feeling as satisfied as one could considering the situation they were in. They had split the hip pouches between themselves, but Claire had given Leon the extra knife they had found. He attached it to his belt, feeling it swing with each step.

They turned the corner, startled shortly afterwards by a zombie beating against the window at the bottom of the stairs. Leon instinctively reached for his handgun, but stopped. If he shot at it, it would just break the window, and there was a good possibility it wouldn't go down in one hit. Even if it did, the window being broken would allow other zombies to crawl in… 

“Oh, thank God,” He heard Claire say behind him, “found some boards.”

She walked up to the window, wooden boards and nails in hand. He held the boards in place as she hammered them in using the handle of her knife. They stepped back, admiring their work. The zombie outside still banged against the window, but if the window broke, it would be unable to get inside. A small victory in and of itself.

A few moments later, they stepped into the dark room by the stairs. Claire flicked on the light, revealing a small table in the middle of the room as well as some lockers and a storage box. Leon opened the lockers as Claire went into the dark room, finding another container of gunpowder and some bullets for Claire, which he sat down on the table next to the typewriter. He found a note beside the table talking about the different types of herbs found in the area and their properties. That was useful to know… He hadn't thought about asking Claire if there were any other types besides the green ones.

As if on cue, Claire walked out of the adjacent room, red herb leaves in hand.

“Wanna try mixing these with the green herb you found earlier?”

“Sure.”

He watched Claire sit down at the table, mixing both sets of herb leaves before taking out a small baggie and pouring them inside.

“I found some of these in the room over there. You should take some, too.”

She gave him a handful, and he put them in his pocket. His hand rubbed up against the roll of film from the safety deposit room. He pulled it out, showing it to Claire.

“Do you think we could develop this? It might be useful.”

Claire shrugged, “Maybe, but I don’t know how to develop film.”

“Oh. It’s ok, I do. Hope there's still some developer in here…”

Leon walked into the adjacent room, sighing in relief once he found an unopened bottle of developer and stop bath underneath the table, and a container of fixer in one of the drawers. He sat them next to the sink and walked out of the room, sitting the shotgun ammo and flame rounds they found earlier into the storage box. No use in carrying it when they don't have it.

He observed Claire still sitting in the lone chair in the room, popping her back. Developing the photo will take a bit, so they may as well take a short break.

“Are you hungry?” Leon asked, “That vending machine from earlier had some chips in it, I think.”

Claire nodded.

“Ok, I’ll be right back.”

Leon made a quick trip down the hall, gun and flashlight raised as he trekked back to the broken vending machine a zombie had been wailing on. He quickly grabbed a few bags of chips, not caring what flavor they were, and speed walked back. He shut the door behind him, and poured the bags of chips down onto the table.

Claire immediately grabbed a bright green bag of Lays, smiling, “Oh, nice, I love the sour cream ones.”

She ripped it open, popping a few chips into her mouth, and held one of the bags up. Leon shook his head. She needed the calories more than him, being a civilian.

“Not right now. Just save me a bag.”

Leon closed the door to the adjacent room behind him and flicked on the overhead light, filling the darkness with a red light. The person before him had left everything set up in the sink, so all he had to do was fill the tray with developer and get to work. 

Several washes of stop bath, tap water, and fixer later, Leon was left with a picture of a statue holding a book and a scepter.

… Well, that was a waste of time. Damn.

He exited the room, showing the picture to Claire, who had downed several bags of chips in the meantime.

“Huh,” she said, “wonder what that is.”

“The film roll said ‘Commemorative Photo’. Doesn’t mean much to me, though.”

She shrugged, “It must be something important, right? I mean, it was locked up in the deposit room. Why lock it up like that if it wasn't?”

Leon hummed. He took the last bag of chips and opened it. The smell of sour cream filled his nose as he brought some chips up to his mouth.

“I left you some of my favorite flavor, so be grateful.” She teased, making Leon smirk.

“Wow, thanks.”

The dark room was silent for a few moments, before Claire attempts to strike up a conversation.

“So… you’re into photography?”

Leon nodded, “Yeah. I took some classes back in high school.”

“Ah, ok.”

Silence once more.

“... Sooo, what do you like to take pictures of?”

Leon coughed, a chip going down the wrong way. Claire handed him a water bottle from across the desk, and he took a swig. She must have found it while he was developing the photo.

He took his mouth away from the bottle, sitting it down on the desk.

“Oh, I dunno. Anything, really. Nature, architecture, people… Just whatever catches my eye.”

Leon didn't mention how he hadn't taken any pictures in quite a while. He sold his camera, needing the extra money. He tried to take up drawing, a much cheaper hobby, but he was never as good at capturing a moment like a camera is. 

Thinking about it started to make him feel depressed. Time to change the subject.

“What’s your brother like?”

At first, Leon regretted asking, scared he would upset her thinking about him. But his fears were alleviated when she smiled, eyes filling with warmth.

“He’s an asshole.”

Leon blinked.

“Oh.”

Claire laughed again, “Yeah. He always thinks he's right about everything, even when he's obviously wrong. He would get into fights with his superiors all the time when he was in the Air Force, usually over stupid stuff. Or, at least, stupid stuff to me.”

She tossed the empty bags of chips into a trash can, “And when we were younger, we’d always get into fights. Push each other in the mud, break each others shit… We both were assholes, honestly, now that I think about it.”

“But… He’s also really sweet. He puts on this tough front, especially since he's joined S.T.A.R.S, but underneath it all, he’s like a big teddy bear. I remember this one time when we were kids and my parents-”

She stopped herself suddenly, pausing as she pulled herself out of her thoughts.

“... We were at the fair, and he had won this giant stuffed dog. We were walking around, and he had this big shit eating grin on his face the whole time, carrying it around. But, there was this little girl, even younger than me, and she was crying. I don’t remember why, exactly. I think she fell, and her mom was trying to make her feel better, but it wasn’t working. But Chris just walked up to her and gave her the dog out of nowhere!”

Leon smiled, “That’s adorable.”

She smiled back, “It was so adorable.”

Claire fiddled with a sheet of paper on the table, crumpling up a corner of it. The dark room was silent for a while, Leon not daring to break the silence with the loud crunching of chips, before she started to speak again.

“Just… Why? Why would he not tell me he was going to Europe? He should have known I would have tried to find him, so… Why did he do it?”

Leon didn't have an answer. All he could do was look down at her from his bag of chips, and grab her shoulder in understanding.

“Sorry,” She sighed, “I know you barely know me and all. It's just been a long night.”

“Yeah, it has.”

Leon gripped her shoulder a little tighter, and let go.

“It really has.”

He took the last chips out of the bag and ate them, throwing the empty bag away in the trash.

“But, we’ll get out of this, and you can ask him yourself. And punch him too, while you're at it.”

She snorted, and stood up.

“Yeah, I should.”

\-----------------------

The second floor had two zombies waiting for them, but Leon and Claire took care of them. Claire had given him some handgun ammo she had made while he was developing the photo afterwards, which was highly appreciated. They went into the men's locker room after finding a red herb outside, only to be stopped from going into the shower room by a broken pipe shooting steam in the doorway. They had found a locker with a lock on it, attempting a few random codes before stopping.

Claire had found some more flame rounds and shotgun shells inside one of the lockers, while Leon had found a corpse stuffed inside another. Not as great of a find. They had also spent a few minutes attempting to open a portable safe they found, only to be disappointed to find that it contained only a spare key for the terminal downstairs. They left it and continued upstairs.

Leon stopped in front of another locker, yanking on the lock. It didn't budge. He sighed. It was worth a shot, at least.

They stepped inside the torn down wall into the small room on the third floor. On the desk underneath a lamp was a key, which Claire picked up. She held it between the two of them, observing the blue spade symbol on the end of the key.

“This must go to those doors we saw earlier!”

Leon nodded in agreement. They decided to continue forward instead of backtracking to unlock all the doors, but before they left, Leon knocked down the doll standing on the desk. It nearly gave him a heart attack when he first saw its creepy shadow.

They opened the door, travelling down the dark hallway, the floor creaking under their weight all the while-

Something skittered across the window at the end of the hall.

“What the-”

“What was that-”

The sound of faraway glass breaking silenced them both. Claire and Leon looked between each other frightfully.

“That,” Claire whispered, “was not a zombie. Zombies can’t just- climb walls!”

“Well, then what the hell was that, then?” Leon whispered back.

Neither of them had an answer. They continued forward, slower this time.

Leon found a note at the end of the hall, talking about some creatures called Lickers. He showed the note to Claire, who remarked that it might have been they had just seen a minute ago. He agreed, thankful for the person who left the note there. Now they knew that if they saw one of those things to be extra quiet.

Leon entered the west storage room first. A musty smell hit him immediately, causing him to cough. The room had various junk and rubble scattered around, and they had to take care not to trip on the random stuff lying across the ground. Leon spotted some wooden boards lying against a shelf, however, and threw them across his back. That would be useful for those broken windows in the first hall…

“Hey, I found some gunpowder.” Claire told him, making him turn and watch her put it away.

They stepped around the corner, jumping when a body falls from the ceiling, hanging down halfway as its arms dangled uselessly in front of the doorway. Leon had raised his handgun without thinking as Claire jumped, but calmed down as the body didn’t move any further. While he did ask himself how in the world the body ended up like that in the first place, he was just grateful it didn't reach out to attack them like some sort of fucked up whack-a-mole.

Claire went around the body first, followed by Leon. They stopped, however, when they saw what was on the far side of the room.

Bars lined a fifth of the room, with a section of it boarded up heavily, a box labelled “C4” attached to it. Behind the bars laid six bodies, covered in long dried blood. Leon could hear the flies before he could smell the rotten flesh. He was starting to grow nose blind to the smell, as messed up as it was.

“Christ…” Claire murmured.

A note on a table out of the corner of his eye captured Leon's interest. He wanted desperately to look at anything else right now.

He picked it up, but felt disgusted and angered the longer he read it. The person who wrote it talked about how he was going to torture and murder the officers behind the bars. Leon crumpled the paper up and threw it down on the ground. 

“What did it say?” Claire asked him.

“Just some guy who got his kicks out of murdering people.”

Leon's disgust was only somewhat alleviated by the two hip pouches on the same table as the note was. He didn't feel good about using something that person might have used, but they both needed the extra space they provided. He made a mental note about the Maiden statue on the other side of the bars. They’d have to find a way to get to that.

Claire grabbed some ammo for her gun on another shelf before they both sidestepped the body hanging down from the ceiling into the library.

The chandelier and lamps decorating the walls provided a yellowish ambient lighting to the room as they entered. Leon could hear a zombie ripping into something downstairs, however, so he couldn't let himself relax in the calming light.

Leon looked over the railing, counting two active zombies in the room, with multiple bodies scattered across the floor. He took aim at the one that wasn't preoccupied eating a corpse and fired. It recoiled from the first few shots, but went down with the fifth one. Claire shot the other, taking it down in four. They climbed down the stairs once they saw the zombies didn't move. Leon found a corpse gripping a combat knife, and gave it to Claire.

According to the map, the room adjacent to the library was the lounge, which would lead them into the second floor west hall that they weren't able to access from the showers. Of course, when they entered, the door that would allow them to enter it was locked. It did have the Unicorn statue, luckily enough, which Claire entered the combination to retrieve the medallion it had. It also had some more gunpowder, and a map to the upper floors of the police station, which Leon took.

As they left the lounge and Claire started to unlock the library door with the spade key, Leon's eyes were drawn to a red book lying on a desk next to the door. He picked it up, trying to remember where he had seen it when he realized it was the same book the statue had been holding in the commemorative photo.

“Claire?”

She put the spade key away as she looked at Leon, “Whats up?”

“Look,” Leon held up the book, “It's that same book from the photo earlier.”

She looked at it for a moment before her eyes lit up in recognition, “Oh, yeah, it is! We should take it. It may be important.”

He nodded, putting it in one of his hip pouches. They exited the library, stepping back into the main hall. Leon leaned over the railing to look down at Marvin, who was messing with the computer next to him. They descend the stairs, stopping in front of him.

“How are you holding up, Marvin?” Claire asked him.

“Surviving,” He replied, “You find all the medallions yet?”

Leon shook his head, “We found the Unicorn one, but the Maiden statue is behind bars in the west storage room. It has C4 attached to an entrance that's boarded up, so we need to find a way to blow it up.”

Marvin looked shocked at the words, “C4? What in the…”

He rubbed his face, shaking his head, “Well, C4 is a pretty stable explosive. You can’t just shoot it or set it on fire. You're gonna need a detonator to blow it up, and I’m sure there's one around here somewhere if we had explosives just lying around. You’ll have to find it, though.”

Leon nodded, “Yes, sir.”

The sound of something moving made Leon turn, watching Claire put the second medallion into the grooves in front of the statue, making a section of the statues base move and disappear. Only one more to go, then.

Before they tried to find the detonator, however, Leon reached into his pocket and took out the photo from earlier.

“You ever seen this before, lieutenant?”

Marvin took the photo, eyeing it for a few moments before giving it back to Leon, “Yeah, that's a statue in the art room… It got moved here a while back for some auction in town. Why?”

“We found a roll of film earlier, and this photo was on it.”

“That,” Claire interrupts, “And we found the book in the library.”

“Goddammit, I _knew_ I shouldn't have trusted David with that thing.” Marvin exhaled sharply, “He probably broke it somehow and someone who didn't know any better put it in the library. Not that it matters now.”

“Since you're going that way, just toss it in there, I guess. But I don't think any art collectors are going to be too mad at you if you don't, given the circumstances.”

They nodded in unison.

Marvin leaned back suddenly, gripping his side as he groaned. Claire grabbed his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

“Marvin, please let us give you some herbs, it might help-”

“Don’t. Just…” He waved his hand, “Keep it for yourself.”

He lifted his head up toward her, “You should get going now, ok?”

Claire looked at him sadly, but let go after a few moments, not pushing it any further.

Leon looked between the two before stating, “We’ll be back soon, sir.”

Marvin nodded, wincing as he rubbed his injury. They left shortly afterwards, both of them giving him one last look as they climbed the stairs toward the second floor east hall.

\-----------------------

The art room was dark, littered with statues and busts covered in dust and sheets. He could see the dust floating around the room in the poor lighting as Claire sneezed. He walked to the back of the room, observing the statue from the photo in person. The statue was of a regal king, covered in flowing robes as he gripped a golden scepter tightly in his right hand. It would look much more regal, however, if it's left arm wasn’t broken, lying on the counter next to it.

Claire walked up next to him, showing him the weapons locker key card that they had been searching for. Oh, hell yes.

She also showed him a note she found next to it, talking about how the stone in the scepter was a jewel famous for being cursed and leading people to kill others for it. Well… That wasn't great. When Leon put the broken arm and book together and fit it back onto the statue, causing the statue to relinquish its grip on the scepter, they decided to leave it in the art room. They both agreed they probably weren't going to be needing a cursed stone anytime soon.

As they exited the room, Claire stopped and turned to Leon.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“It sounds like… a helicopter.”

Leon stopped to listen, and looked over to Claire in shock once he heard it. He could distinctly hear the sound of a helicopter flying around the station! Maybe the radio chatter they heard earlier was for a rescue mission?

“Oh, shit!” Leon said, “Lets wave it down!”

They ran down the hall, hearing the helicopter fly closer and closer-

Until the helicopter crashed into the side of the building.

The floor shook from the impact, making him and Claire wobble unsteadily as they listened to the shriek of metal bend and break against the hard wall. He could hear rubble land onto the ground outside as they slowly approached the remains of the helicopter. The helicopter was thoroughly crushed, the blades having been bent like paper when it crashed. The pilot had been killed on impact, as Leon could see his neck was in a very unnatural position from where he was at.

“Jesus, that poor guy…” Claire said.

Leon touched her arm, making her look up at him. He shook his head. There was nothing they could do but hope he didn't feel anything when he died.

“We should get going.”

She looked back at the dead pilot, pausing, before nodding. 

Leon could see the hope physically leave Claire as soon as it appeared when they first heard the helicopter as they walked away.

It was still raining outside when they went through the fire escape, still observing the crashed helicopter from the metal stairs. Leon walked downstairs first, ripping his eyes away from the crash as he saw some more wooden boards lying against the wall, picking them up and putting them with the others he had. He also found some handgun ammo for himself, taking it and reloading his gun instantly.

His eyes drifted to the wide open door that lead to the courtyard. He approached it, looking at the broken lock and handle. He had half a mind to say it looked like someone crushed it in their hand, but that wouldn't make any sense, even for a zombie…

“Hey,” Claire said, lifting up a chain with a sturdy looking lock off the ground, “we could probably use this to lock it back up.”

“Yeah, good idea-”

Leon was interrupted as the helicopter exploded.

They screamed, covering their heads with their arms as debris flies everywhere. He felt small chunks of rubble hit him, and a particularly big chunk hit him in the gut, winding him. He collapsed, ears ringing as he struggled to breathe. 

At least it wasn't a shard of metal, he thought. If it was, he’d be seeing blood pool on the ground below him. His hands dug into the wet ground, and he could feel Claire grab onto him, trying to pick him up.

He looked up at her from the ground, trying to read her lips.

She looked scared, eyes wide as she tried to yell at him. Her eyes looked back and forth between him and the door, before pointing at it. He looked, fear filling him as well as he saw what exactly was making her so scared.

The explosion had attracted multiple zombies, shaking and beating against the outer gates of the station, struggling to get in, and zombies that had been laying outside in the courtyard start to stand and come towards them.

Fuck.

Leon struggled to stand, watching Claire wrap the chain between the door and the fence beside it before putting the heavy lock on it. A few moments later, three zombies slammed against the door, attempting to get to them. The only thing standing between them and their prey was the chain and lock, holding the door in place.

Leon sat down on the stairs, coughing violently as he still struggled to breathe. His hearing was coming back to him, and he heard Claire attempt to contact Marvin over the radio, cursing when he didn't answer.

Claire turned to Leon, “We gotta get out of here!”

He nodded, trying to take a deep breath but failing. Claire extended a hand toward him, helping him get to his feet. He watched Claire take a pair of bolt cutters sitting in a tool box next to the only other door outside and use it, cutting a chain that had been attached to it. She opened it, and they both rushed inside, passing by an open window-

A zombie extended a hand through the window, grabbing Leon and sinking its teeth into the crook of his neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> goddamn my schedule is so fucked up but i have winter break after this week and ill be working a day less starting the 16th... so maybe we will get more updates more frequently???????? who knows. i sure dont.
> 
> did you know that body in the west hallway actually says M. Branagh on the nametag? For real. They just reused the same outfit for that scene... not that i blame the devs for doing that. but i decided to make that marvins ~domestic partner~... who is dead :'-)
> 
> kevlar vests are actually pretty lightweight, now even more so than they were back in the day. but im gonna pretend they were pretty fucking heavy in 1998. kevlar experts, feel free to yell at me for my decision
> 
> also still no beta. just me, god, and google docs spell check


	3. THE WOUNDS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warning for assisted suicide. if you want to skip it, when you see claire has left the room after marvin asks her to leave, just scroll down to the next break
> 
> ...
> 
> uh. yeah. happy holidays

The feeling of cold teeth piercing his skin made him scream.

The zombie on his neck growled, blood beginning to flow from Leons neck into its mouth and his shirt. He could feel it dig deeper, feel it start to rip _something_ , and he got a sudden rush of adrenaline. He grabbed it by the hair and yanked, dislodging its teeth from his neck with a near popping sound from how tightly it had lodged itself in him. Still being held back, it gnashed its teeth and snarled, reaching out towards its unfinished meal, but was interrupted by a knife to its temple. It fell slack, and Leon let go of it, watching it fall outside.

He grabbed his neck, trying to stem the blood flow. He could feel the warm blood start to stain his hand as he swore.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck-”

Claire took his free hand, dragging him over to the nearest door.

“Oh God, Leon, I’m so sorry, shit-”

She dropped his hand, having to use both of hers to get a chain off the door with the bolt cutters, but immediately dragged him inside once it clattered onto the ground. She slammed the door behind them, darting her head around to scope the room. On the far side of the room a zombie turned toward them and started to approach, but Claire quickly raised her gun and fired. The second bullet pierced its skull and its head split open, splattering bone and brain matter all over its side of the room before it collapsed, unmoving.

His eyes darted to the window to their left, watching another zombie attempt to break through. He tried to take some of the wooden boards off his back, but doing it one handed made it difficult.

“Just-”

Claire grabbed the boards, taking them off his back.

“Sit down. Please.”

Leon was about to argue, but the look on Claire's face made him stop before he even started. They both know he was in no state to do anything.

He took a seat on the couch in the corner. 

He watched Claire hold the boards up against the window, nailing them in place. Once she was done, she ran to the other side of the room, making sure the chair underneath the doorknobs previously was firmly in place. He then watched her exit the room, spare boards in hand, and heard her start to hammer those into place on the broken window outside the room.

The adrenaline started to wear off, allowing the pain to take its place. He could feel his neck throb with each heartbeat, the blood struggling to clot. The thrumming of his erratic heart, the shrill ringing of the fire alarm, and the banging from Claire hammering the boards in place provided a chaotic backdrop for his own frenzied thoughts.

He was a dead man walking.

He’s not stupid. Naive in ways, but not dumb. He’s read about zombies, knows how they infect humans. The bite was the number one way for someone to turn into one of those things. And he got bit right on the neck. If it was his arm or leg (and he could feel bile rising as he thought about it) there was the possibility they could have used their knives to attempt to cut it off. While that would have raised a whole slew of other problems, he would still have a chance. 

But it bit him right on the neck. Whatever was turning people into zombies had no doubt traveled to his brain by now. Hes dead, hes fucking dead-

Claire entered the room, taking a quick glance at Leon before moving the other couch opposite of him in front of the door. Once she was done, she wiped her sleeve against her forehead, smearing sweat onto her jacket, and sat down next to Leon.

“I’m so sorry, Leon. I-”

She looked choked up, having to take a deep breath before she attempted to continue, but he shook his head, interrupting her.

“No, no, its ok. Its not your fault, I should have paid more attention. It just… came out of nowhere.”

He felt Claire's hand join his on his neck.

“Let me see it.”

He removed his hand, allowing her to see his wound. She inhaled sharply through her teeth, eyes quickly looking up at his before darting back down to his injury.

“Christ.”

“Trust me, feels worse than it looks.”

He let out a small laugh. Claire didn’t laugh back.

She started to rummage through one of her hip pouches, and pulled out a small baggie. Leon could see it was the red and green herb mix she made earlier.

He put a hand on top of hers, stopping her.

“Don’t.”

Claire withdrew her hand quickly.

“You can’t just-” She said, shocked, “I can’t let you.”

“Claire, you said it yourself earlier. We’re being attacked by fucking zombies, and I just got bit.”

He could feel his hands shake as he went on, “...You know what that means.”

He leaned back on the couch, rubbing his face before his fingers gradually drifted down toward his neck, “Just leave me here. Take my gun, just… Grab that last medallion and get the hell out of here.”

The pain radiated off of his neck as his fingers danced around the bite marks, “It’d just be a waste-”

He felt a sharp grip on his shoulder suddenly.

“Leon. Look at me.”

He did.

Claire's face was a mixture of worry and something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Guilt, maybe.

“I’m not letting you give up like this. We have to try. It's not a waste if it could work. Marvin wouldn’t let us try earlier but I can’t…”

Her fingers start to dig into his shoulder as she continued.

“I can’t just leave you here like this. Not if there's something we can do. So just… Let me do this. Please.”

The banging of the window a few feet from them and the fire alarm outside provides stressful ambiance to the otherwise quiet room as Leon drew in a deep breath.

“... Ok.”

Claire let a small smile form, the relief coming from her was nearly palpable.

“Thank you, Leon.”

She opened the bag, pouring the contents into her hand. She gave him a slightly sheepish look.

“This is gonna be gross, just so you know.”

Leon watched her stuff the mixture of leaves into her mouth, swishing and chewing them for a bit before spitting the resulting mush out onto her hand. He would have felt a bit queasy from the sight if he hadn’t been worried about turning into a zombie in the near future.

“Honestly,” Leon said, “I was expecting worse.”

Before he could say anything else, she smeared the mush onto his neck. He hissed, feeling the slimy goop sink into his open wound. It stung, leaving a cold feeling in its wake, and he could smell a minty scent drift up to his nose as she gently rubbed it in.

Leon's eyes widened as the pain started to fade away.

“It’s working, Leon!”

Claire's excitement bled into her voice as he felt the wound close, leaving behind only a mixture of spit, bits of leaves, and blood on his neck.

She pulled her hand away, and Leon immediately replaced it with his own. 

“What the…”

His fingers danced around his neck, attempting to feel for the holes that had previously been in his neck, but does not find any.

He turned, facing Claire.

“That… actually worked.”

“Yeah,” She smiled.

Claire punched him on the arm.

“So don’t do that giving up shit ever again.”

He could see that while Claire did that somewhat playfully, her deathly serious tone meant she wasn’t joking around when she said that.

He rubbed his arm in equal parts disbelief and wonder as he answered, “Got it.”

\-----------------------

They searched the room they had been in not long afterwards, finding some ammo for both of their guns, a flash grenade, a green herb, and both regular and high grade gunpowder. Leon took the flash grenade and herb, while Claire took the rest. Claire also gave him one of her knives to replace the one he used earlier. They also found a valve handle, which Leon thought might go to one of the pipes in the locker room, and a fuse. The fuse had the words “Main Hall Shutter” written on it, which spurred them both to take it. Maybe the gate could fully open with it.

They removed the chair on the opposite side of where they had entered, going to the right and finding some more wooden boards and bullets for Claire in a small filing room. They then trudged through the wet hall to the bathroom, opening all the stalls to find a first aid spray. A toilet was overflowing, stuffed with an entire roll of paper towels for some reason, which was the cause of the water flowing out into the hall. Leon tested all of the other stalls, and when he found they all flushed properly, suggested a quick bathroom break. He let Claire go first, standing outside the bathroom as he waited, and went inside once she came out.

He stood in front of the mirror, trying to observe his neck in the darkness. He couldn’t see any sign that he had been bitten, save for some minor bruising. He honestly thought it wouldn’t have worked… They had seen a few herbs littered around the station, so he figured the survivors stuck inside the police station stopped collecting them when they realized they didn't work.

He was glad Claire all but forced it on him. He didn't want to think about what could have happened if she didn't.

He tried to scrub some of the now dried blood out of his shirt collar and kevlar vest with little success. He stopped, sighing as the shitty hand soap did little to take the blood out. He washed the soap off and exited the bathroom, heading down the wet hallway and away from the loud fire alarm. They needed to get out of here soon, as the alarm would only attract more zombies… Either that, or find a way to turn it off completely.

They stopped in front of a fuse box, and inserted the fuse they had found. The gate jerked before slowly opening all the way, and they entered the main hall once more. Leon climbed a ramp, stepping around the corner to approach Marvin. He was asleep, laying down on the couch as he unconsciously gripped his injury.

“Leon?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think we should…” She lifted the first aid spray they had found in the bathroom, shaking it slightly, “use this on him?”

Leon paused as he thought about it. Marvin had refused medical treatment earlier, wanting them to save it for themselves. He most likely had some sort of zombie bite, as why else would he refuse to be healed? But the herb concoction had healed Leon, much to his disbelief… They had to try, at least, just as Claire did earlier.

Leon nodded. He crouched down next to the lieutenant, and slowly raised his hand off of his wound as Claire shook the first aid spray. He could see where a zombie had taken quite a sizeable chunk out of Marvin, leaving behind only a festering wound on his side. Christ, if it worked, he’d probably need another to knock out the infection…

He placed Marvin’s hand down, and watched as Claire sprayed the wound. At first, the wound started to fizzle at the contact, foaming from the spray.

As she emptied half the bottle, Leon's hope waned.

Claire stopped, giving Leon the beginning of a desperate look.

“Why isn’t it working?”

She shook the can and started to spray again, reaching down to move some of Marvin's shirt out of the way. Her hand touched up against the wound, which started draining greenish yellow pus onto her from the contact. She jolted her hand back, wiping it on her pants as she continued.

Soon, the bottle was empty. Marvin's wound still remained.

Claire dropped the can.

“... Why?”

Leon was silent as he watched the wound continue to drain pus, beginning to stain Marvin's already bloody shirt at the edges.

“Why didn’t it work?” Claire asked.

“... I don’t know.”

Leon rubbed where his injury had been as he watched Claire walk to the stairs and sit down, slumping over as she rubbed her hands on her face. Leon glanced down at Marvin one last time before he walked over and sat down next to her.

“That was an entire first aid spray,” Claire said, defeated, “That should have no problem healing most stuff besides, like, broken bones and stuff you need surgery for.”

He nodded.

The main hall was quiet for a while as they sat on the stairs, staring every once in a while at Marvin, who would intermittently groan and toss in his sleep on the couch.

“Maybe…” Leon started, “Maybe it's been too long. Since he got bit.”

Claire didn’t respond, looking down at her feet with her head in her hands.

He continued, “We tried, which I think he would be grateful for if he was awake right now. But… we can’t just sit here. We have to get that medallion.”

She didn’t look at him as she said, “He’s going to die.”

Leon didn’t say anything. He didn’t move for a few moments, but eventually he slowly reached over and touched her back.

He heard Claire make a small noise, sniffling. She rubbed her eyes, trying to stem the flow of tears. Honestly, he felt like crying too, considering their fucked up situation. Knowing that there were zombies everywhere, trying to get to them at every moment. Knowing that no one was looking for them.

...Knowing that Marvin was going to die soon.

Tears of his own started to come forth at the thought, but he blinked them away.

He pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her. He wished he could say something to comfort her, but words would be meaningless.

All Leon could do was be there for her as they both thought about the lieutenants inevitable demise.

\-----------------------

It was a little while before they both collected themselves enough to continue onward through the station. Claire's eyes were still red as he turned the valve handle, cutting the steam in front of the shower rooms off. He was sure his eyes didn't look much better, either.

They had gone through the west hallway to board up one of the windows, only to be attacked by two zombies falling in through the open windows. Leon had wasted no time shooting at the first as it fell trying to get inside, while Claire shoved a knife into the others temple while it struggled to stand.

After boarding a window, they entered the operations room and used the bolt cutters to enter the supply room. Inside they found some more wooden boards, a flash grenade, and a green herb, which he let Claire carry. They also found some sort of electronic gadget which Leon recognized as a detonator, telling Claire as such. They took it, but not before attempting to open the door with a heart symbol on it into the records room unsuccessfully. The club door in the hall also wouldn’t open, which made Leon hope they would get either of the keys to access the room. But they did find a whiteboard in the supply room with the words “LOCKER ROOM: CAP” written on it. They agreed it most likely went to the locker upstairs that they could not get into earlier.

Their next destination was the safety deposit room to get the shotgun and grenade launcher. Leon thought about grabbing the grenade launcher, but Claire called “dibs” when she opened the locker. The shotgun was still appreciated, however. This much firepower would be highly useful. They made sure to stop by the dark room to grab the ammunition they first got for their new weapons they left inside the storage box, on top of the ammunition left inside the weapons locker, and headed up the stairs to the showers. When they opened the locker with the code they got, they were pleased to see even more shotgun and flame rounds inside. Maybe something was trying to tell them something.

Once Leon cut the steam off, they stepped inside the shower rooms. Rubble from a broken wall covered the ground as a broken shower head sprayed water onto the linoleum tiles. They passed from the men's showers into the women's showers through the hole in the wall, and both of them jumped when a body slumped over on a bench fell over suddenly. Leon quickly nudged it with his foot to check and see if it was truly dead or not, and relaxed when it didn't move. They found some more gunpowder, which Claire gave to Leon, and proceeded into the second floor west hallway.

Bodies littered the floor as rain poured in from a broken window. A lone flashlight on the floor in the middle of the hall was the only source of light besides their own. Claire picked up two flame rounds that were sitting on a couch in front of the door, putting them in her hip pouch as Leon watched. When she was done, they started to walk down the hall towards the S.T.A.R.S office-

Something from the ceiling pierced a corpse in the hall with a long tentacle and lifted it up toward itself.

They both stood in shock as they watched a creature seemingly without skin started to rip into the corpses torso with its razor sharp teeth, sending entrails onto the floor below it as its tongue explored the body's chest cavity with a sick slurping noise.

Leon felt himself starting to sweat as he looked at its long claws. That would explain the injuries on Marvin’s partner downstairs, and the claw marks they saw on the wall…

He grabbed Claire’s arm, eyes still locked with the creature as he started to back away slowly. They both walked backwards as slow as they could, careful not to make the floorboards squeak. The rain from an open window to their right suddenly intensified, blown in harshly from a strong gust of wind, making Leon raise an arm on instinct-

He hit his elbow against the wall, directly on his ulnar nerve. The tingling pain made him hiss involuntarily, a sharp noise in the silence.

The monster stopped, turning to face them from its perch on the ceiling. Its tongue retracted as it let go of its hold on the corpse, letting it drop onto the floor. It then shrieked, jumping down and skittering toward them, its razor sharp nails scratching the wooden floorboards.

Leon yanked Claire behind him, pumping his shotgun as he picked up the pace. It was closing in on them, fast.

“Claire, get the door open!” He yelled.

He heard Claire run toward the door, making the creature shriek again. It jumped at Leon right as he heard the door open, and he barely was able to sidestep out of the way in time. He felt the air shift next to him as he avoided it, the creature slamming its nails into the floor. It ripped them out with ease, sending splinters into the air as it growled at Leon, lunging again.

He shot it in the face, filling its wide open mouth with lead. Its teeth shattered as its bottom jaw detached, landing in a pile of blood. But even as it screamed in pain it didn’t stop, landing on top of Leon and throwing them both to the floor. He gasped, feeling the sudden impact from being forced onto the floor mixed with the sensation of its claws poking into his shoulders. Its tongue lolled onto his chest, no longer held in place by its now missing jaw. Blood and saliva dripped down onto his torso as he tried to shove the creature off of him to shoot it again, but it started to dig its claws into his shoulders even deeper, beginning to pierce the skin-

Claire swiftly kicked the monster off of Leon, knocking it back a few feet. He backed away on the ground as Claire raised her grenade launcher and fired.

The flame round set it on fire instantly, and it shrieked in agony. Its exposed muscles melted, revealing the bones beneath as it peeled away and fell off in chunks. In a few moments, it slumped to the ground, dead.

Leon sat there for a moment, breathing heavily as he watched the flames start to die down. He touched one of his shoulders, checking how badly it hurt him, and was grateful that the wounds weren’t deep at all.

He didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Claire wasn’t there. Those claws were easily the length of his forearm.

Claire extended a hand to him, which he took. He stood, observing the creatures remaining charred flesh.

Claire poked its corpse with her foot as she asked, “You think that was what that note earlier was talking about? A Licker?”

“It fits the bill,” He said, “But I wasn’t expecting it to take a shotgun blast to the face and live.”

They continued onward, stepping into the S.T.A.R.S office. It was a mess, covered in papers and various other junk on the floor. The small office on the left to the entrance had a battery, which Leon put inside the detonator, bringing it to life. They also found a red herb, high grade ammunition, a flash grenade, and some shotgun shells. Leon took the shells and red herb, and Claire took the rest.

Soon, Leon was peering through the metal gate into the armory. He had tried the computer next to it, but he was unable to get it to open the door. While they had everything they needed to blow the C4 upstairs up, he wished they could somehow get the armory door open. That Lightning Hawk could easily take out a zombie, being one of the most powerful handguns money could buy. The submachine gun would also be helpful....

He heard Claire say something behind him.

He turned, looking at her mess with a jacket hanging on the wall in between some desks.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

“Oh, sorry… Just thinking out loud.”

She rubbed a leather sleeve between her fingers.

“This is my brothers,” She continued, “We got these matching jackets a while back. Its just weird seeing it here.”

She let go of the sleeve, beginning to dig through one of the desks drawers. He stepped closer, watching her.

“That your brothers desk, too?”

“Yeah. I can tell because he left all these Twizzler wrappers all over the place…”

She huffed, closing one of the drawers more harshly than necessary.

“Of course he didn’t leave anything useful.”

“Hey,” He said, “We got a battery for that detonator and some other stuff. I’d say that's pretty damn useful.”

“True. But really? He didn’t leave one Twizzler? C’mon.”

He let out a short laugh as they exited, going left towards the lounge. They tried to go into the linen room, but found it wouldn’t open. Leon was getting tired of all the doors with symbols on them, as they all seemed locked. They were able to unlock the door to the lounge, however, and made their way through it into the library. They climbed the stairs, and entered the west storage room.

The body from earlier still hung from the ceiling as they went inside. He still jumped a bit when he saw it, having expected it to have fallen to the ground from the time they had been gone. They stepped around it and went to the leftmost section of the room. Claire watched as Leon set the detonator on the C4 and flipped the switch. They then ran to the opposite side of the room, watching the explosion from afar a few seconds later. 

At the same time the body fell from the ceiling, Leon swore he heard a Licker growl. He looked at Claire, giving her a questioning look. She nodded back, signalling to him that she had heard it too. They crossed the room as quietly as they could, stepping over the various junk and rubble on the floor as they approached the last statue. Once they stepped over the last body, Claire took out the small notebook and opened it, flipping to the page with the combinations drawn on it. After memorizing it, she put it away and started to flip the symbols in front of the Maiden Statue.

Leon heard the skittering before he saw it.

He looked up, seeing a Licker enter the small adjacent room. It had its head low to the ground, sniffing over some of the corpses on the ground. It seemed to find one especially pleasing, as it opened its mouth and start to rip into it, shredding cloth and flesh alike.

They both stopped, watching the scene before them. It was only ten feet away, eating a corpse without a care in the world, seemingly unaware of the two survivors next to it.

He turned his head, looking at Claire as he raised a finger to his lips. He then put his hand on hers, slowly moving one of the symbols underneath as quietly as he could. It made a soft clicking noise at it stopped, and while it was much quieter than before, it was enough for the Licker to pause and raise its head. They stood motionless as it let out a short growl and returned to eating, having lost interest quickly in favor of its meal.

It continued like that for a few minutes, listening to the Licker feast on the corpses entrails as Claire slowly turned the symbols to the right combination. It turned its head toward them every now and then when the symbols would click particularly loud, but would go back to ripping the body's intestines apart shortly afterwards. 

Eventually, Claire entered the final symbol, and grabbed the medallion as soon as she could. Leon felt her tug his arm, letting him know she was done. He had been facing the Licker the entire time, watching it eat in case it decided to investigate the weird noises next to it.

Leon wondered how they would get past the Licker. While Claire could shoot it with the grenade launcher again, they should probably save the ammo since it wasn’t actively trying to kill them…

Without a second thought, he picked up a small piece of rubble on the ground and threw it through the bars. It landed somewhere on the far side of the room, knocking over something unseen in the process. The Licker let out a short shriek, skittering toward the noise. Since the Licker no longer blocked the way out, they moved as quickly as they could without alerting it to their presence. But they stopped a few seconds later in front of the door to the library.

A shelf had fallen in front of it, no doubt from the earlier explosion. They would have to move it out of the way before they could go through.

Leon heard a groan at their feet.

Him and Claire backed up at the same time, watching the body from earlier rise up from the ground. At the same time, the Licker started to crawl back behind the zombie towards them.

Without a word, Claire threw a flash grenade on the ground in front of the two monsters. 

“Cover your eyes!” She yelled.

He only had a moment to do so before it went off with a loud _bang_.

The room filled with a bright light for a few seconds, and while he was mostly able to protect his eyes, it still left his ears ringing from the close proximity. The zombie was rocking back and forth, scratching at its eyes, while the Licker was writhing on its back.

They ran past them quickly, escaping into the hallway. Leon slammed the door behind them, and they didn’t stop moving until they were at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor.

Leon took a breath, wiping sweat from his forehead. He started to lean against the wall, but a hand suddenly reached through the boarded up window, startling him. 

He stood in front of the window, eyeing the zombie outside. It snarled at him, smushing its face against the boards as it tried to reach him.

“Still out there, huh?”

It responded by growling, mashing its face further into the wood as it unsuccessfully tried to get through the boards.

He turned, facing away from the zombie and toward Claire.

“How did you know that would work?” He asked her.

“What do you mean?”

“That flash grenade against the Licker. It's not like it has eyes or anything.”

“Oh,” she said, “Well, flash grenades are pretty loud, and since they rely on sound I thought it might work. And it did.”

Ah… He didn’t think about that.

“Well, it was awesome. Nice work.”

She smiled, “Thanks.”

They went into the West Office, unlocking the safe inside with a combination they found in the S.T.A.R.S office. Inside were two hip pouches, which they split between each other. They then exited into the main hall, and Leon watched as Claire inserted the last medallion into the final slot in front of the Goddess Statue. The moment she did, the front of the statue shifted, falling into the ground and turning into a set of stairs leading to a door. She pushed it open and shined her flashlight in it, revealing a dark office inside.

They looked at each other, then back at Marvin. He was still on the couch, tossing and turning in a restless slumber.

“What…” Claire started, “What do you think we should do. About Marvin.”

Leon didn’t know what the best course of action was. It was obvious to both of them that Marvin wasn’t… going to make it. But they couldn’t just leave him here to die, alone and with zombies right around the corner.

“Maybe,” He said, “We’ll find somewhere safer than here. It wouldn’t be right just to… leave him.”

Claire nodded in agreement.

They approached the lieutenant, Leon leaning down beside him. He could see how clammy his skin was, and Leon swore his skin didn’t look as grey as it was now the last time they saw him.

He took his arm in hand, and gently shook it, trying to wake him.

“Lieutenant Marvin.”

Marvin groaned in his sleep, but didn’t wake.

Leon shook again, slightly harder than before.

“Lieutenant-”

Marvin growled, causing Leon and Claire to jump back in shock as Marvin sat up straight, sweat pouring down his face. He groaned as he gripped his side, pulling it away as he felt the pus from earlier cake to his hand.

He sniffed the air, then cursed, shaking his head, “Please tell me you didn’t waste a first aid spray on me.”

“We had to, Marvin.” Claire said. “We had to try.”

“Well, I wish you hadn’t”

Marvin sighed, looking between the two survivors, “You got the passage open?”

Leon nodded.

“Good.”

“Lieutenant,” Leon said, “Come with us-”

“No,” Marvin interrupted, turning away from the both of them, “I… Just go. Save yourselves. Get out of here while you still can.”

Leon reached out to Marvin again, touching his shoulder, “Sir, we can’t just- just leave you here-”

“To die.” Marvin cut him off, “You can’t leave me here to die.”

Claire and Leon didn’t respond.

“... Look, you two. You’re both smart. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have made it this far.”

Marvin gently patted his injured side, wincing as he did.

“Look at me. I can’t go anywhere like this. So just get out of here.”

The main hall was silent as they both absorbed the lieutenants words. Neither of them moved an inch as they watched Marvin curse under his breath in pain.

“... Are you sure?” Claire asked.

“I’m sure.” Marvin said.

Claire nodded, sadness clear on her face as she sat down next to Marvin and hugged him.

Marvin’s eyes widened, obviously not having expected that to happen. Leon hadn’t either, honestly.

“We won’t forget you, Marvin.” Claire said into his shoulder, hugging him tighter.

Marvin's eyes softened a few moments later, letting a small smile form on his face as he patted her on the back. She pulled away soon after, getting up to stand beside Leon.

“You need a hug, too, rookie?” Marvin grinned from his seat.

Leon smiled, “You want one?”

“It depends on if you can handle getting hugged by some sweaty old man.”

Leon laughed and leaned down, hugging the lieutenant tight. He felt Marvin pull him closer, patting him a couple times on the back.

He pulled away, his smile turning into a frown as he knew they had to leave Marvin. Claire fared no better than him, looking just upset as he felt.

“Guess this is goodbye, then.” Leon said.

“Yeah,” Marvin replied, “So get out of here, already.”

Marvin jerked his head up, as if he suddenly thought of something.

“Leon… Could you stay behind a minute?”

“Of course, sir,” Leon answered, “What is it?”

Marvin shook his head, “I can’t say. I just want it to be between the two of us.”

Leon turned to Claire. She looked confused, but understanding.

“Go on ahead,” Leon said, “I’ll meet up with you, ok?”

Claire nodded. She faced Marvin one last time.

“Goodbye, Marvin.”

Marvin gave a slow wave, “Bye, Claire.”

Claire stood in place, obviously not wanting to leave, but eventually she took a deep breath and turned, going down the stairs underneath the statue. Leon could hear a mechanical sound a few seconds later, and he knew that the two officers were alone.

Leon turned toward his commanding officer as he asked, “What did you need, sir?”

Marvin looked down at his lap, taking a breath before lifting his head up to look at the rookie officer.

“I need you to kill me.”

Leon felt ice crawl through his veins at the words.

“What?”

“You heard me. Don’t make me pull rank on you.”

“Sir, I…” He stumbled with his words, “I can’t just- murder you!”

“It’s not murder. More like… putting me out of my misery.”

Leon shook his head rapidly, “You can’t expect me to do this, sir.”

“Leon, listen to me.”

Marvin gestured to his handgun on his belt, “I’m going to die soon. But I want to die at least with some dignity, not lying on some dirty couch from an infected wound.”

Leon was silent as he continued, “Please, Leon. Do this for me.”

Leon looked down at his feet, unable to respond. The main hall was quiet once more as Marvin stared at Leon. Slowly, Leon reached for his handgun-

“Not that gun.”

Oh, Christ. Leon was going to throw up.

Leon stopped, reaching over his back for his shotgun. He felt the cold metal in his hand as he pulled it over his shoulder, letting it hang toward the ground in his grasp.

“Sorry,” Marvin apologized, “there's just the possibility that I could come back if you used the other one.”

Leon doesn’t respond, slowly raising the shotgun up to the lieutenants head. 

When the gun was level to his head, Marvin started to talk again.

“Did you see my partner earlier?”

“... Yes, sir. I’m sorry.”

Marvin continued, acting like he hadn’t heard Leon apologize, “It was two nights ago. We were coming from the operations room, trying to find some water bottles for the others. As we were coming back, one of those skinless freaks came through a window. It slashed his face right open. You know what I did?”

“... No, sir.”

“I ran,” he said, “I ran away, and closed the hall off with the gate.”

His voice cracked at the end, and Leon's hands shook as he saw Marvin start to tear up.

“We told each other we’d tough it out until help arrived, but that obviously didn’t happen. He went and got himself killed and I got bit shortly after.”

Marvin stopped, wiping a hand on his eyes.

“There's a lot of things I wish I could have told him. Things I wish I could have done differently. But, honestly, I just wish I could see him again. See him happy, and not just another dead officer on the floor.”

Leon was sure he was going to cry, but he just barely able to stop himself, taking a deep breath to try and collect himself. It only helped somewhat, not stopping his tremors as he held the shotgun to Marvin’s head.

“Get out of here, Leon. Don’t make our mistakes.”

Marvin reached up, pulling the muzzle of the shotgun closer to his head.

“Do it.”

Leon hesitated.

“Do it!” Marvin ordered.

He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

Leon could feel something wet hit his cheek as a loud _bang_ echoed through the main hall. 

He opened his eyes. He turned around, legs giving out.

He proceeded to vomit on his hands and knees as the image of his lieutenants body seared itself into his mind forever.

\-----------------------

… It had been carrying out orders when the new one came in.

T-00 held a soldier in its grasp, crushing the human’s skull with its large fingers. Blood poured onto the floor, turning its dark leather gloves even darker as it squeezed one last time, hearing the soldiers skull crunch from the force. They dropped the human, leaving it to bleed out on the floor. It could feel bullets attempt to pierce its tough skin as it approached the next target.

Humans were peculiar like that. Seeing that something was pointless, yet attempting to try and change the outcome anyway. They might live longer if they ran.

It did not matter. It would catch them either way.

Two Tyrants besides itself were in the large room in the Disposal Plant, disposing of the numerous targets that were shooting bullets at the bio weapons. Two other Tyrants were patrolling the halls of the building, searching for deserters and stragglers.

Five Tyrants, including itself, had been ordered to kill the Delta Force, a team of soldiers sent to retrieve G-virus samples. It was T-00’s first official mission, and it would not fail.

It was not in its programming to fail. It would carry its orders with the utmost efficiency and brutality, as deemed by its handlers.

It stood over a lone soldier, who fumbled with their gun before throwing it on the ground beside them. It supposed they ran out of bullets. 

No matter. It was stronger, superior in every way. It would snuff out their life and move to the next-

It felt the device on the side of its head buzz to life, sending electricity straight to its brain as it received a transmission.

> _T-00-1 HAS SUSTAINED SERIOUS DAMAGE AFTER FAILING TO RETRIEVE G-VIRUS SAMPLE FROM TARGET_

> _T-00-2 WILL GO IN T-00-1’S PLACE / INSTRUCTIONS IMMINENT / STAND BY_

It stopped to consider the words. It was not often it was called by its sub name. Typically, all Tyrants were called T-00, and the sub name was only to specify a certain Tyrant.

Which happened to be it at this very moment.

A second later, the newest orders were received.

> _GO TO RACCOON CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT / KILL ALL SURVIVORS / RETRIEVE G-VIRUS SAMPLE FROM SHERRY BIRKIN / DO NOT ENGAGE WILLIAM BIRKIN_

The transmission stopped, leaving it alone with its new orders. It shifted, remembering the map of the city all the T-00’s had been shown before being airlifted. It decided the best route to the police station, and turned its head to one of its fellow Tyrants.

The other Tyrant nodded, signalling it heard the transmission as well. They had nothing to worry over. Four Tyrants would be plenty to wipe out the remaining soldiers.

The soldier at its feet started to back away on the ground, but was stopped as T-00 stomped on its torso, crushing its rib cage. The human attempted to scream, but was silenced when it stepped on its head, flattening it underneath its thick boots. It turned, leaving bloody footprints behind it as it left to go toward its goal.

It would not fail like the other had.


	4. THE EYE

Leon only moved when his knees started to ache.

He got up, careful not to look at the couch. Without thinking, he ripped one of the sheets off of a stretcher in the middle of the main hall. 

He wished he could do it without opening his eyes, but he had to. It was the least he could do for the lieutenant. He opened his eyes and lifted the sheet up, putting it over Marvin’s body. He had to make sure he was completely covered.

He could see where the sheet was beginning to stain red, growing larger the longer he stared at it. He forced himself to look away, picking up his shotgun on the ground. He strapped it to his back, the extra weight not feeling as comforting as it did earlier. It felt… dirty. 

He knew he had to get over it. As much as he wanted to drop it and run far, far, away, he knew he couldn’t. He had to keep going forward. Claire was waiting for him up ahead, and they needed the extra firing power. So he let the cool metal stay strapped to his back, and went down the stairs underneath the Goddess statue.

A secret office was at the end of the stairs. An old burgundy desk was at the center with a small assortment of books on top of it, and the back wall was filled with fancy leather bound books on its shelves. Leon looked to his left and saw some sort of T bar valve sticking out of the ground. He picked up a (very dusty) post-it note on it, which read “DOOR”. 

He turned the valve and watched the entrance he came from shift until it was entirely closed. It would be best to leave it closed in case any more zombies found their way inside. It wasn’t like they would be going back there anyway.

He did a once over of the office, finding some more shotgun shells and gunpowder. Next to the shotgun shells was a diorama of the police station. Leon touched it gently, feeling the grain and paint underneath his fingertips. He pulled his hand away, wiping the dust from the diorama off onto his pants, and entered the elevator just a few feet away. It was obviously old and hadn't been used in quite a while, squeaking all the way down. 

The elevator soon stopped, and Leon stepped out, turning on his flashlight to combat the immediate darkness. Leon turned back and forth, confused. Claire was supposed to have waited for him… She couldn’t have gone too far, right?

Leon put his radio to his mouth and pressed the large button on the side.

“Claire? Where are you?”

…

No response.

Leon pressed the button again, starting to grow worried as he said, “Claire? Are you ok? Please respond.”

…

Silence.

“Fuck,” he muttered to himself, “I have to find her.”

He went down the stairs quickly, gripping the railing as he went toward a lit doorway near the bottom of the stairs. He went inside, stepping onto the metal grating-

A shadow moved, moaning as it ran down the hall above him.

“Claire?!” He yelled.

The shadow didn’t answer, continuing to run away until it finally disappeared somewhere ahead. He ran after it, passing pipes and machines until he entered a large industrial room. The slight hiss of steam filled the room as his head thrummed. She had to be close, he just saw her!

“Claire,” He called out, “Where are you?!”

He turned the corner, but stopped immediately. The rusty metal walkway was broken, crushed grating lying on the ground below. 

“The hell happened here…?”

The grates themselves looked torn up, like something had punched or torn through it. Leon’s mind raced for an answer, as he knew that even a Licker wouldn’t be able to rip through metal, no matter how sharp their claws were-

Something shifted behind him.

He turned around.

A hand grabbed him and forced him to the ground, pushing his back up against the grating with inhuman force.

What used to be a man stared at him, covered in bulging muscles, tendons, and blood. Its right arm was grotesquely large, pulsating as its grip on a pipe in its hand tightened. Greasy strands of blond hair hung limply over its face, half of which was being absorbed into its large arm. The remains of its once white lab coat were merely shreds, draping over Leon as he tried to escape from under it. It was futile, as it dug its fingers into his kevlar vest even tighter, scaring Leon that it would rip it if it tugged harder.

It lifted him off the ground a few inches, and shoved him back down, making his back collide with the metal grating. He groaned, feeling his back pop painfully from the action. 

The monster opened and closed its mouth, gaping like a fish as it seemed to struggle to control its larger arm. The monster gritted its teeth suddenly, yanking Leon up slightly as it slammed its right arm against the wall. Blood and pus started to leak out of its arm, chunks of drywall jutting out of its flesh.

The monster groaned, opening its mouth again.

“H- Hel-”

Its grip loosened, just for a moment.

“Hhhe-lppp. M- Me.”

Oh, God. This monster could talk, and it just begged for fucking _help_.

Before Leon could even begin to respond, the monster screamed. Leon watched as an eye opened on its right arm, larger than his head. An orange iris floated in yellow sclera, wandering around for a moment until it locked onto Leon.

Its pupil shrank to a pinpoint, and Leon felt the grip tighten again.

Shit.

It slammed him down onto the grating, hard. Leon gasped, the kevlar vest not doing anything to protect his spine from the harsh metal. The monster growled, spit hitting Leon’s face as it picked him up and slammed him down again. As Leon cried out, scratching its arm, he heard the sound of metal creaking and groaning.

Before he knew it, they were falling to the floor below. His head was forced back when he hit the ground, colliding with the grating as the metal dug painfully into his spine again. He groaned pitifully, seeing stars as he attempted to crawl away. He got to his feet, still dizzy as he watched the monster stand as well. He backed away with a hand to his head as it lashed out with its pipe, narrowly missing him.

Leon could feel himself start to sweat as its eye on its shoulder locked onto him again. Every fiber of his being was hyper aware of how unnatural it was, telling him to run away. But… It had asked for help. He felt crazy for even thinking about it, but they were in the middle of a zombie outbreak. That alone should have been impossible, but it was undeniably real. He had to give it a chance. It was why he became a police officer; to help others. Even if this thing didn’t fit his definition of human.

“Hey, hey, calm down!” He raised a hand up in front of him, trying to show it that he meant no harm. It ignored him, taking a step toward him as it bared its teeth.

“Wait,” Leon raised his other hand, “You wanted help, right?”

He kept his voice low as he continued, trying to get it to calm down, “I can help you, ok? I’m here to help.”

It stopped in its tracks and stared at him. Sweat, blood, and other fluids Leon couldn’t identify dripped off its skin as its body twitched sporadically, almost like it was fighting with itself.

“There we go, calm down,” Leon said, “That’s it…”

Leon couldn’t tell if he was talking to the monster or himself.

It put its left hand up to its face as it moaned, right arm spasming. Its large eye made a sick squelching noise as it moved in its socket, orange pus dripping down its arm. The pus mixed with blood as it seeped into the numerous wounds on its arms, pieces of wall still stuck inside of it. 

“It's your arm that's bothering you, right?” He took another step toward it, gauging its reaction, “I can take those out, if you let me.”

It didn’t respond, eyes peeking out between its fingers as it watched him come closer. It made inhuman groans the closer he went, not helping the primal part of Leon's brain calm down. Still, he tried to keep his voice level as he closed the distance between them.

“I’m going to take these out, ok? You’ll feel a lot better, I promise.”

He was right in front of it now, and Leon tried not to gag at the smell of blood and rot. He reached his hand out toward its arm, aiming for a piece very close to its eye-

Its eye widened suddenly, and Leon felt a large hand grab his face.

His scream was muffled as its fingers dug into the back of his head. His hands scratched at its arm as it held him, digging into its twisted flesh and muscle as he tried to escape. It howled, starting to squeeze his skull in retaliation. 

Oh, Christ, this thing was going to pop his head like a balloon if he didn’t get out _now_.

He screamed underneath its hand, blindly punching at its arm until he felt it hit something squishy. It howled again, letting him go in favor of putting a hand to its eye. He didn’t want to stick around and see what it would do next after that. He had a feeling words wouldn’t work on it anymore. He ran away, trying to find a way out. He turned the corner, stopping momentarily in front of a raised ladder in the middle of the room.

“Shit, shit, shit, I can't reach that-”

He heard the monster start to run, its pipe making a shrill noise as it dragged it on the ground beside it.

God, he was so fucked.

He raised Matilda, aiming it at the monster's eye as it rounded the corner. It seemed that it was the most sensitive part of the creature, and shooting there would probably be the most effective place to do so. 

He prayed it would actually work, and not just piss it off. He fired three rounds directly to its overgrown eye, watching orange pus fly into the air from the impact.

It screamed, stopping in its tracks to dig its fingers into its socket, trying to alleviate the pain. It turned its head toward him, nearly frothing at the mouth as it raised its right arm and swung the pipe at him. He jumped back, watching the floor where he had just been crack from the impact. 

He fired two more shots at it, one hitting it in the head, and ran away again. It was right on his trail, the bullets seemingly having no effect this time as it chased after him.

“Shhhhh- Sheeerrr- ryyy,” It groaned, “Hheelp meee.”

“Yeah, well you should have thought of that before trying to break my skull!” Leon shouted, not looking back as he ran down a tiny hall until he was at a dead end. Barrels and pallets were stacked on top of each other all around, making the small space even smaller. He saw a container of handgun bullets on top of a box and grabbed it quickly. He turned around-

Only to have a pipe hit him on the shoulder.

He screamed, going down onto his knees as he gripped the rapidly forming bruise underneath his shirt. He then quickly ducked his head down, narrowly avoiding another swing of its pipe. 

Christ, that would have cracked his skull wide open if that had hit him. 

He raised Matilda and shot at it, the recoil reverberating painfully into his wounded shoulder. It shouted out, backing away when a bullet pierced its pupil. Leon took the opportunity to escape and got up, running past it. He hastily got his shotgun out, putting a single shell inside. He didn’t have time to reload his handgun, which sorely needed the bullets at this point. He would have to use the shotgun if he wanted to get out of this mess.

He turned right, stopping at another dead end. He cursed, about to turn back until something caught his eye.

On top of some random machinery was a lone grenade.

“Holy fuck,” He said in disbelief, “Who left this down here?”

He didn’t have time to wonder about that. He was just grateful it was there. He picked it up and put it on his belt, raising his shotgun just as the monster came into the room. It howled, reaching out for him just as Leon put two shells into its eye. Its eye blinked rapidly as it shrieked in agony, blood and pus mixing onto the floor as Leon ran past it into another hall. He felt it right on his heels as he swung around, prepared to deliver more shells to its eye when it grabbed him and slammed him to the ground.

He groaned, his back not yet recovered from the beating it had received earlier. The monster growled as it pushed on his chest, trying to crush his rib cage with its sheer strength. 

He wheezed, feeling the air leave his lungs as it continued to push. Without thinking, he took the flash grenade on his belt off and activated it, throwing it to the ground beside them. He closed his eyes, and heard the deafening _bang_ a moment later, the bright light visible behind his eyelids. The monster withdrew its hand, clawing at its face as its giant eye floated around blindly. From the floor, Leon raised his shotgun again, and fired.

It screamed, more orange pus than ever before pouring out of its socket as its eye grew red and irritated. It grabbed its arm, twitching again as it tried to soothe its pain. It stepped backward, leaning its back against the railing before it fell, screaming one last time as it disappeared into the inky blackness below.

He leaned over the railing, trying to see if he could see the monster. When he didn’t, he sighed in relief. It probably died when it hit the floor below… Wherever the floor was down there.

He was taken out of his thoughts when the ladder across the room suddenly lowered on its own, followed by the sound of footsteps walking away somewhere in the distance.

He whipped his head around, trying to find the source, but was unsuccessful. 

“Somebody's watching me…” He mumbled to himself. 

As much as it bothered him that someone nearly watched him get turned to paste and didn’t offer a hand or lower the ladder earlier, he was glad the ladder was down now. It would take valuable time to stack boxes and pallets to try and get up there. Time he couldn’t afford to waste. He needed to find Claire.

He took a quick look around before he left, finding more handgun ammo, a red herb and a green herb. After he went up the ladder, he found another green herb and some more gunpowder in a locker. While using the last of his bullets to reload his handgun Leon made a mental note to use some of the herbs once he either found Claire or happened across a safe spot. He also needed to use some of the gunpowder he had been collecting. Extra ammunition would always be useful.

Leon walked up the stairs and went across a short walkway, ending up in a small room with a storage box and typewriter. He looked inside a locker, but found nothing in it. He didn't stick around much longer, going up a ladder around the corner.

He lifted the manhole at the top to the side and poked his head out cautiously. Multiple cars were strewn around a dark parking lot, one of which was shining its lights directly into his eyes through a metal gate. But he didn’t see any zombies, which was the important part to him. He moved the manhole to the side and climbed out, walking toward the gate. 

He observed the terminal next to it, trying to find some sort of emergency open button, but couldn’t find one.

“Damn,” he said, “Need a keycard.”

He was not looking forward to looking for that. Hopefully it was nearby. It was probably their best bet at getting out of the station…

Something growled behind him.

He turned, seeing a dog appear from behind a pillar a few feet away. Its flesh was rotten, chunks missing to reveal muscles and bones. It drooled as it revealed its sharp teeth, growling deep from its chest.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me.”

Leon was officially fucking done with Raccoon City.

Before he could do anything, it jumped and landed on top of him, forcing him to the ground. He put his hands at the base of its throat, trying to prevent it from biting his face as it barked and snapped at him, spit flinging onto his face.

It was mere inches away from his face as it tried to rip him apart. Leon's mind raced as he tried to figure out what to do. The shotgun would literally blow the dog away, but he couldn’t get his shotgun as it was strapped to his back. His handgun was the second best option.

One hand gripped tighter around its neck as the other dropped to his belt, growing more frantic as he couldn’t find his handgun. He quickly put his other hand back onto its throat as he turned his head to the side, cursing when he saw it was a few feet away on the ground. It must have fallen out of its holster when the dog jumped him.

The dog continued to bark, digging its claws into his vest as it fought against his grip. One of his fingers slipped into an open wound on its neck, dripping blood down onto him. He yanked his finger out, dropping his arm down beside him to try and grab his handgun just out of reach.

It snapped its sharp teeth even closer to his face, nearly taking off his nose. He put his hand back, trying to force it away-

A gunshot resounded throughout the parking lot, and the dog fell to the ground next to Leon, bleeding out from a new wound on its neck.

“Hey.”

Leon lifted himself into a sitting position, looking to his left. A woman was in the shadows, watching him with her gun drawn.

“Who is that?” He asked.

“Stay sharp.” She said. He was confused by her words momentarily, until he heard growling starting up next to him. In a flash, he grabbed his gun and shot the dog again, having already begun to stand once more. His bullet pierced its face, making it drop dead in a puddle of blood.

The sound of high heels clacking against concrete filled the parking lot. Leon raised his gun toward her as she approached. While he was grateful she had saved his life, she still had her gun aimed right at his head, and he would prefer not to add “bullet wound” or “death” to his growing number of injuries.

“Lower it.” She commanded, towering over him as he sat on the ground. Leon couldn’t see her eyes behind the sunglasses, but he could tell that she felt she was completely in control of the situation just from her body language. But he wasn’t about to drop his gun just yet. 

She reached into a pocket, pulling out a wallet to show a badge and I.D. card, “FBI.”

Oh… Huh. That explained some things.

Leon lowered his gun, “Sorry… Thank you-”

Her gun drifted to the side, shooting at the zombie dog again. It had lifted its head unbeknownst to him, but now laid still with an additional bullet hole right between its eyes. He winced, kicking himself internally. He should have made sure it was dead. It very well could have taken a chunk out of him if the mystery woman hadn’t shot it… again.

“... For your help.” He finished.

She lowered her handgun, silent for a moment as she looked down at him. 

“Surprised you made it this far.” 

She started to walk away. Leon got up, following her.

“FBI, huh?” He said, “What's going on here?”

She didn’t turn to face him as she said, “Sorry, that information’s classified.”

“Where are you going?” He asked. 

She stopped, annoyance radiating off her as she turned, “Do yourself a favor: stop asking questions and get the hell out of here.”

She turned back around and walked away, going through a door in the corner of the parking lot.

“Hey! I’m not done talking to you!”

He let out a disgruntled sigh. She obviously knew something about the situation that he didn’t. He needed to find out what that was. Anything that could help him and Claire survive was vital.

Leon started after her, passing random barrels and trash bags as he observed the new working lights overhead. She must have turned the power on somehow when he was distracted. Maybe when the dog attacked him?

He went through the door into the jail entry. He looked behind the reception desk, not finding the woman but a map of the police station basement and more handgun ammunition. He reloaded Matilda, and continued onward.

He stepped over a corpse and went toward the lit hallway straight ahead, but huffed when the door wouldn’t budge. He went through the unlit hall instead, observing the cells on both sides of him. Each contained a zombie or two, snarling or reaching through the bars as he passed. 

When he turned the corner, he stopped, sniffing the air. It smelled strongly of… cigarette smoke?

On cue, Leon heard the distinct sound of a lighter clicking. He took a few steps forward, walking to a lone cell in the back. 

A man with long brown hair in a ponytail sat on a bench, a cigarette in his hand. He looked up, surprise clear on his face.

“Hello?”

“Hey!” Leon replied.

The man stood up quickly, looking relieved as he gripped a bar on the cell, “I don’t believe it. a real human! Hello, human!”

Leon understood how he felt very, _very_ well. 

“You been here long?” He asked. 

“Long enough.” He said, “Are we the last ones alive?”

“No, no, there's a few of us…”

“Oh… That's good news, I guess. Unless, of course, Irons sent you.”

Leon perked at the name, “You mean Chief Irons? Is he still around?”

He and Claire hadn’t seen the Chief since they arrived at the station. He hadn’t been mentioned in any of the numerous notes they had found, either. Leon had started to assume the worst, but if this man was talking about the same Irons, he could still be alive!

“Who cares,” The man said, taking a quick drag of his cigarette, “Hopefully, he’s someone's dinner by now.”

… What?

“What do you mean by that?” Leon said, brows starting to knit together.

The man lowered his hand, gesturing to his surroundings, “He’s the bastard that locked me in here.”

“I’m sure he had a good reason.” 

“He did.” 

The man took another drag of his cigarette. He threw it down on the ground once he was finished, stomping the cigarette butt out with his shoe.

“I was about to blow the whistle on his dirty ass. I’d have done the same thing too, I guess.”

Leon could feel his body grow cold at the words.

“What do you mean ‘blow the whistle’?''

The man crossed his arms, “I got some dirt on him. Something _really_ juicy and illegal.”

He let out a small laugh, “It’s not like he’s slick or anything. He acts like he’s the most upstanding fucker in town, but he’s just a pig in lipstick with a badge. He _radiates_ shady, but I’m apparently the only person who knows him for what he is.”

Leon fiddled with a crease on his pants as he thought of what the man was saying. Maybe the man was telling the truth and Chief Irons really did lock him up to prevent what information he had from being revealed. He didn't want to assume that Irons would be that corrupt to lock someone up for that. He hadn’t personally met the man when he was accepted, only seeing his signature on his acceptance letter. But Leon had heard only good things about the Chief for months since he started to apply to the police station. Hearing this man accuse Irons of being a dirty cop didn't sit right with him.

He could be lying. He knew criminals would use lies to try and seem like they were in the right. It was basic psychology, really. But Leon was not a man who would automatically assume someone was lying. It wouldn’t be right for someone in a position of authority like him to think that.

He would keep that accusation filed away for later. He’d ask Irons himself if he saw him.

“I… See. But you still shouldn’t talk about him like that.”

“What does it matter to you how I talk about him? We should be more worried about how there are zombies outside than how I talk about a-”

“Talkative as always, Ben.”

Leon jumped, watching the woman from earlier approach the two.

“What the- How did you-” Leon stuttered, confused, “There was only one way to go!”

“I know my way around.” She replied.

She turned her head to Ben, “Do you have the information?”

“Yeah, I got it,” Ben reached into the inside of his jacket and pulling out a cassette recorder, “Lucky for us he was too dumb to frisk me before throwing me in here.”

“Good,” She held her hand out, “I’ll take that, then.”

“Ah, ah, ah,” He said, waving his hand, “Not so fast. How do I know you won’t just leave me in here? I’m not giving you this till you let me out of this cell and help me get out of the city.”

“We both know you’re safer in that cell than out. Letting you out wouldn’t help keep you alive.”

“Wait, what are you two talking about?” Leon interrupted. 

The woman looked at Leon, “Ben here is an informant of mine. He has information of use to my case.”

“Yeah, and I’m not giving it till I know I’m getting out of here… In fact-”

He raised a keycard hanging around his neck, “You won’t be getting out of this station without this.”

“What is that?” Leon asked.

“A keycard to the parking garage gate,” Ada answered, crossing her arms, “How did you get that?”

Ben shrugged, “Doesn’t really matter. What matters is you both need me to get out of here. If you leave me in here, well… It won’t work out well for either of us.”

Leon’s eyes lit up watching Ben fiddle with the keycard. He was hesitant to release Ben from the cell earlier as it probably was one of the safest places he could be during this. Zombies couldn’t break through solid metal bars, and he doubted a Licker could break through either. But if he had the keycard, they needed to get him out of there as soon as possible. 

Ada stared at Ben from the other side of the cell, then slowly turned her head to Leon. He could tell she was giving him a calculating look underneath her shades. He started feeling a bit anxious from how serious she was looking at him.

After a few moments, she sighed.

“We’ll get you out of there. I expect that tape in my hand soon.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ben replied, grinning.

The mystery woman began to walk away the way she came, but Leon grabbed her arm, stopping her. She turned around suddenly, yanking her arm out of his hand and stared at him.

“You can’t keep walking away from me!”

She gave him a look that told him that she could, in fact, keep walking away from him. She almost started to, until he continued.

“I’m Leon Kennedy.”

She paused, watching him silently before she leaned a bit closer to him, “Find a way out, Leon. Before it’s too late… Then we’ll talk.”

She turned, walking away. She didn’t stop as she said, “Name’s Ada.”

Soon he and Ben were left alone in the city’s jail, Leon still looking at where Ada had just been.

He blinked, realizing something.

“Wait, ‘find a way out’? Does she want me to do this alone?”

“Way safer for her to do so, pal,” Ben said, lighting another cigarette, “She’ll find a nice place to hide while you do all the heavy lifting.”

Ben sat down on a small bench in his cell, watching Leon groan to himself as he started taking a long drag.

Leon was miffed at the prospect of finding a way to open Ben’s cell alone, but he understood why she was going to let him do it alone. She would be able to conserve her energy and bullets by letting him run around and do everything. He just wished she would give him a bit more to work with.

But she did save his life. He supposes this is some form of repayment… Just more convoluted and time consuming.

Leon rubbed his temple, feeling a headache coming on. 

“Need a cigarette?”

Leon shook his head, “No, thanks. I don’t smoke.”

Ben hummed, putting his pack away. Leon walked to the electrical panel next to Ben’s cell, observing how it seemed to be missing two panels. He picked up a note on a table beside it, eyes flickering over the words as he read it.

_‘The power panel is out. Can the person in charge of it please take care of it ASAP!?_

_I assume everyone knows, but since the jail's power panel is old as hell, we're gonna need those custom power panel parts no one makes anymore. There should be a few in the generator room._

_Addendum:  
I got word that there's only one of those power panel parts in the generator room. The guy that's here to fix the bell in the clock tower should have another, so someone swipe–I mean, ask him nicely for it, please.’_

Beneath the last paragraph, a sloppy note was written. It must have been from someone else, as the handwriting was different.

_‘Good luck with that. Wouldn’t be surprised if we already ran out. I have a few scattered around the station in case something like this happens. Come talk to me, I’ll give you one (if you promise not to eat all the free food again!) -Elliot’_

Leon could only hope that there was still a power panel in the generator room. Elliot wasn’t exactly around for him to talk to anymore. He looked at his map, confirming that the generator room was at the other end of the parking garage. Leon had been hoping he wouldn’t have to go back into the police station, but if the other power panel was in the clock tower there was no way around it. He’d have to find a way to the third floor, as neither he nor Claire had been up there when they were in the station previously.

He folded his map and put it in his pocket. He noticed a crank sitting on the same table and picked it up, observing the square notch at the end of it. He decided to take it with him, as he still had some room in his hip pouches. It might be useful. 

His injured shoulder throbbed painfully suddenly, sending shooting pain down his arm and into his neck and back as he grabbed it. He’d have to treat it sooner rather than later... The particular corner of the jail they were in seemed relatively safe. If any zombies came stumbling in, Leon would hear them before seeing them.

“Hey, I’m gonna leave soon to help get you out, but I have to treat a wound first.”

“You get hurt bad?”

“I don’t think it's broken, so I guess not. But I have to take off my shirt to treat it…”

He took some baggies of green herb out of a hip pouch, sitting them on the table next to him as he started to strip. He put his kevlar vest and shirt in a pile on the table next to the baggies. He had almost taken off his undershirt before he turned around, facing away from Ben as he took it off.

“Aw, a shy cop? Cute.”

Ben's snickers filled the room as Leon blushed in embarrassment from the teasing. 

Leon reached for the herbs as he replied, “Maybe I just don’t want you to see how bad my injury is.”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure I’ve seen worse. You see some shit when you’re a journalist.”

Leon took the herbs out, chewing them as Ben continued, “Or is it a tattoo that you’re embarrassed about? A scar?”

His mouth was full, so he hummed as a reply.

“Scar, huh? S’cool. I’ve seen some pretty nasty scars before. I’m sure it's not bad.”

Leon was sure Ben was just trying to make conversation as he was the first human he had seen in quite a while, but wished he could just accept that he just didn’t want to turn around. He had top surgery close to a year ago, and while the scars had started to fade, he wasn’t comfortable showing people his chest just yet. He was sure he could just play it off as something else medical related as not many people knew or understood what being transgender was, but it still scared him that someone could clock him just by looking at his chest even if he passed perfectly otherwise. He knew it didn’t matter right now, seeing as how they were in the middle of a zombie infested city, but it still made him anxious to think about. 

Leon could hear Ben take another drag of his cigarette as he spit out the leaves and rubbed them onto his large bruise. He sighed, feeling the herbs take effect as it seeped into his skin. Even with the poor lighting, he could see the bruise start to fade from a dark purple to a light yellowish brown in a matter of minutes. Once he was done, he wiped his hand onto his pants and started to redress. When he was finished, he turned around and faced Ben in his cell.

“I’m gonna go find those power panels now. Do you need anything before I go?”

Ben shrugged, “If you find some water that’d be great. I don’t know if I’m ready to start drinking out of the toilet yet, but the sink in here is busted.”

“I’ll keep my eyes open.”

Leon started to leave when Ben called out to him.

“Hey!”

He stopped in his tracks, turning to look at him.

“I know she’s a pretty face, but don’t trust her, ok? She’s bad news. Oh, and if you see Irons around, tell him-” 

He stopped, rubbing his chin between his fingers as he thought to himself.

“... Actually,” Ben smiled, “I’d rather tell him myself.”

He dropped what remained of his cigarette on the ground and stomped on it, spreading ash onto the hard floor beneath his shoe.

Leon didn’t respond. He silently left, leaving the imprisoned journalist behind as he headed toward the generator room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i fucking love Ben so much. what a good character that only had like 10 lines of dialogue
> 
> also since this is 1998 there wasnt much understanding of trans issues especially if you were a trans dude. may as well have been invisible lol. but im not going to delve into transphobia territory in this fic. leon is just shy


	5. THE RAIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my only spoiler for resident evil 3 remake is that capcom was too scared to give mr x a dick. smh my head.

Rain and blood swirled together on the road, making the black asphalt even darker as it dropped the lifeless zombie onto the ground.

Travelling the roads of Raccoon City was an annoyance. Though T-00 knew exactly which way to go, many streets were blocked by cars or other barriers it had to move. And when it did move them, the infected came out in swarms, attracted by the noise. They were slight hindrances, but still a hindrance nonetheless.

Its handlers could see its location at any time through the device installed in its skull. They had been sending its orders to it repeatedly every few minutes, reminding it of its mission. No doubt they were growing impatient, watching it ever so slowly reach its goal. It was standard procedure, but it supposed if it was human it would be irritated at being constantly reminded. It had seen humans at the lab react that way when they were reminded constantly by others about trivial things.

But it was not human. It was the perfect tool, designed to follow the commands of its superiors to the letter. Being simply reminded of its duty was how its life had always been, and always will be.

It was getting closer to its destination. It began walking again, following the mental map in its brain. Rain beat down onto its heavy leather trench coat, and it felt the cold air try and take away its warmth. It did not have any to give.

It was ripping a fence apart in an alley to create a shortcut when it received a message.

_> Delta Force has a weapon._

It stopped for a moment. It was not from its handlers, but from another Tyrant. Communication between Tyrants was not rare, as they used the devices to coordinate silently while its targets were unaware. Even when they weren’t interacting, a Tyrant could still feel the others do so, sending small electrical pulses through its skull. But it was only when they were on the same mission that they were to communicate, making it question why the other was trying to talk to it.

It started to rip the fence again as it listened.

_> What kind?_

Another Tyrant asked before it could. The former must be contacting all Tyrants, then.

_> Unsure. Heard one target mention it to another but currently unable to locate it._

It ripped the fence harder than it should have. The metal was torn out of the wall, taking some of the wall with it. It threw the tangled mess onto the ground and chimed in before any others had a chance.

_> The new weapon must be something that either has a large area of effect or is easily movable._

_> Explain._

It continued down the alley as it transmitted its thoughts to the others.

_> Targets have been unable to use their first weapon. The Demon Sword of Paracelsus cannot be moved, and requires a Tyrant to stand in front of it. It would have to work differently from the former for it to be a solution to targets._

_> Anti-tank gun?_

_> Perhaps._

The first Tyrant interrupted the conversation.

_> Enough. Do not worry over what it may be. Continue the mission but destroy the weapon if spotted._

The other Tyrants, including T-00 responded at the same time.

_> Understood._

The transmission cut out, leaving only a slight hum in T-00’s mind. 

There was no need to worry. Whatever the weapon may be, the Tyrants were mighty. It would have to rival the strength of a Tyrant itself for it to be a threat, and as far as T-00 knew, Delta Force was only equipped with standard military weaponry. The other Tyrants would complete the mission efficiently and without any more trouble.

The rain started to beat down harder, its hat not doing much to protect its face from getting wet as the wind blew directly in its face. It did not blink as it exited the alley into another road, taking large strides as it spotted the clock tower far off in the distance.

Tyrants did not know failure.

\-----------------------

Leon was very, _very_ glad he decided to open the trunk of a police cruiser in the parking garage. 

He had retrieved a container of shotgun shells from inside the firing range after sneaking around two zombies, and nearly walked out when he noticed a tin storage box and a note next to it talking about a broken key inside. He had walked outside back into the parking garage and raised the key fob into the air, but was genuinely surprised that it still worked. He had figured with the way the night was going that the fob battery would be dead. What would have been better would be that the key wasn’t broken, and that they could find a clear route out of the city.

Although, a JMB Hp3 and a gun stock for Matilda was the second best thing, he supposed.

He put the gun stock on Matilda swiftly, and put the other gun on his belt. While it did have a laser sight and used the same ammunition as his original handgun, he felt attached to his first gun.

Not that something like that mattered in the situation he was in. Changing up guns just wasn’t something he thought he should do just yet. He knew exactly how to work Matilda; how to clean it, take it apart and put it back together, knew each individual part… It was the handgun he received in police academy what seemed like ages ago. It was like an extension of him. He knew how it ticked, and not this other gun. If he needed to he would use it, but Matilda was his go-to handgun until then.

Leon glanced over at the locked door behind him. He tried to find some sort of power panel or button that could unlock it earlier, but couldn’t find any. His map also didn’t list any rooms existing beyond the door, which he found strange. He hoped that he could open the door from the generator room later as it seemed to be electronically locked.

He walked through the door into the east central passage and cautiously closed the door behind him. He didn’t want to wake the two zombies in the firing range up.

He went down the hall to his right, stopping in front of a blockade in the middle of the hall. On top of it all was a blue herb. He remembered the note much, much earlier that talked about how blue herbs can cure poisoning, which made him carefully pick the leaves off its stems. While he didn’t think he would be poisoned anytime soon, it was better to take some just in case.

Once he was done, he put the leaves away and entered the kennels. The room was dark, blood splattered across the walls and floors as some cages were wide open, no dogs to be seen. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a container of high grade gunpower on top of some baskets. He pocketed it, passing in front of the cages-

A zombie dog hit its body against the cage, frothing at the mouth as it tried to escape and attack Leon.

He jumped, raising his handgun to the trapped dog. The dog's barks awoke two other zombie dogs in their cages, causing them to bark and try to escape their cages as well at the sight of living prey. He lowered Matilda, seeing as the cages seemed sturdy enough to not let the dogs out.

He thought about putting them out of their misery, but it would be a waste of ammo.

The phrase ‘putting them out of their misery’, however, made Leon think of Marvin.

He didn’t look at the snarling dogs again as he put his gun away and left.

\-----------------------

Leon couldn’t believe he ransacked a morgue. Granted, he did get a flash grenade, a red herb, and a diamond shaped key out of it, but it was definitely one of the dumber things he had done in his life. A morgue was not his definition of a safe place in the middle of a zombie breakout. His wrist felt a bit sore from taking the key out of a dead body's hand, only for it to grab him and try to take a chunk out of him. He wasn’t even looking for a key, he was just looking to see if there was anything inside since he saw some red herb leaves poking out of one of the lockers. When he saw the diamond symbol in one of the corpse's hands, however, he knew he needed to have it. 

He went back into the firing range, having remembered a door there bearing the same diamond symbol on the key. The two zombies that had been sleeping earlier were awake, making Leon sneak to the door to unlock it. Inside was another red herb and a roll of film that had ‘3F Locker’ written on it. He put them away and went back toward the generator room.

When he returned, he thanked his past self for grabbing the crank earlier from Ben’s cell as the metal gate required that specific one to lift it. He lifted the gate after a minute of turning the crank, listening to the metal creak and groan as it rose. Once he was done, he put the crank away and went to the generator room.

While the generator room was still dark, it was slightly lighter than most of the other rooms Leon had been in due to some red ambient light coming from a fire hose box in front of him and another light somewhere around the corner. To his left on the ground was a green herb, which he picked the leaves off of. Once he was done, he walked back into the main room and took a vial of gunpowder that was sitting on a shelf.

He looked around, spotting a bright orange box on top of a cart. He picked it up, observing how the outside said ‘Circuit Conductor’.

“Must be the power panel…” He said to himself.

He opened the box, and was greatly disappointed that there was nothing inside. Seemed that Elliot was right. Shit. Where was he going to find another one besides in the clock tower? He needed two, no way around it. Maybe he left some sort of note on his desk in the west office?

If push came to shove, Leon would just find a hacksaw and break Ben out himself.

He put the box down and went toward the other light around the corner. A single flood light was on the floor among some loose wires, aimed at a circuit breaker. Leon peered into a window right next to it, and found himself looking at a locked door next to the firing range. If his map was correct, that door would take him back into the station. He hoped he could get it open. He didn’t want to go back down into the machinery room and try and jump that gap on the broken walkway. He’d impale himself on the metal with his luck.

He backed away and faced the circuit breaker. He started flipping some switches, trying to figure out how to turn the power back on. It took him a minute to realize that the needles were supposed to land inside the red zones on the two dials, but was quickly able to adjust the switches to where they needed to be.

A loud blaring noise sounded through the window as the red light above the door turned green, signalling that it was now unlocked. The lights in the room also turned on, making him squint his eyes to adjust to the sudden onslaught of brightness.

A metal grate by his feet busted open, and two dogs came crawling into the room.

“Fuck!” Leon yelled, grabbing his shotgun one of the dogs snarled and approached him. It leaped, aiming for his legs, but was torn apart from a blast from the shotgun. Rotten flesh and blood splattered across the generator room as the other dog jumped over the corpse of the former. Leon sidestepped to the right quickly, watching the second dog hit its head against the wall and stun itself temporarily. He wasted no time in killing the second dog as it tried turning around.

Leon didn’t want to wait around to see if any other dogs would come crawling in. He ran, exiting the generator room and going down the hall into the kennels. 

When he turned the corner, another dog busted through a grate. He cursed, and raised his shotgun-

Only for the three zombie dogs in crates to break out at the same time. 

Leon only had a second to wonder why crates would be electronically powered before they ran toward him. 

He backpedaled hard, running back to the door he just came through as the dogs snapped at his heels. He exited the room, and was almost able to close the door behind him until a dog stuck its head outside the door. It growled as he tried closing the door harder with his shoulder so it wouldn’t burst through, making its decayed skin tear around its neck as the door dug into it. Another dog jumped on top of the first, succeeding in sticking its head and a leg out as it squirmed and tried to get to Leon.

While the angle was awkward, Leon raised his shotgun and fired, watching as bits and pieces of the zombie dogs splattered onto the ground. He could hear the third dog scratch against the door, and cursed to himself. He didn't want to open the door and risk getting bit, but he couldn't close the door without having to shove the two dog corpses inside, which would result in one torn up Leon.

He looked over to the barricade beside him, and hoped that it would buy him enough time.

He leapt onto the barricade and climbed over it as fast as he could. The third dog burst out of the room, making a beeline for him as Leon shoved boxes and other junk out of his way until he slipped and fell to the ground on the other side. He got up and ran to the newly opened exit, hearing the dog bark as it climbed the barricade after him. 

Luckily, he reached the exit before the dog could catch him and closed it behind him, leaning against it. He sighed to himself in relief, hearing the dog bark uselessly at the door as it dug its claws into it. He had started to move when the dog managed to force it open a bit, making him force his weight against it. Wasn't the door electronically locked? Shouldn't it have locked behind him?

“Christ, will I ever get a break?!” He asked himself. 

His eyes darted across the short hallway, hoping to find something to jam the door but only finding a few scraps of paper in the corner. It seemed he only had one option.

He let the dog burst through, letting himself go flush between the door and the wall as it ran into the hall, darting its head around to find him. He shoved the door aside and shot it just as it turned to face him, its body flying a few feet from the force. Its head hit the wall with a sickening crack, and fell to the floor.

He approached it, touching it with his foot to see if it was playing dead. When he got no reaction he relaxed, turning his back to its body to look at the door. He instinctively jiggled the doorknob as he wondered to himself why the door didn't lock behind him, and pulled the door open. The lock seemed to be broken, as it wouldn't click back into place. Maybe it worked on some sort of timer and would close automatically with a magnet? Leon wasn't sure. 

Leon let the door hang slightly open as he went up the stairs and looked around. A zombie had its back facing him down the hall, but hadn’t noticed him yet. He saw a chair next to the door to his right, which he grabbed and went back down the stairs quietly to put in front of the door. Once he felt like nothing would be coming through the broken door anytime soon, he went back up the stairs. The zombie from earlier was still facing away from him, so he took the opportunity to shoot it. He missed the first shot, but was able to take it down in the next three. He mentally chastised himself for not hitting a nearly still target on the first try as he went into the door on his right.

The room was dark, but he could make out a table and some chairs in the middle of the room. Leon turned on his flashlight to try and find the light switch. It only took a few seconds to find it to his left next to a storage box, and turned it on.

When he turned on the lights, he saw he was in the police department break room. It was a bit messy, with jackets and hats littering the chairs and table. In the middle of the table was a blue herb, which he picked and put in a baggie. Some lockers were along the walls, which had a container of high grade gunpowder and some handgun ammo. He still wanted to make some handgun ammo, but that would hold him over for now. Leon then went into the adjacent room which had a sink visible immediately upon entering, and two bunk beds to the left with a chair in the middle. 

The sink had a small amount of MAG ammo lying on it, which made Leon a bit excited. He remembered the inaccessible semi automatic pistol in the S.T.A.R.S office, so seeing ammo lying around for it made him hopeful that there might be another one somewhere in the building that he could get his hands on. Trying to get that Lightning Hawk would no doubt be a pain. 

On the chair between the bunk beds, Leon saw a fuse lying on the cushion. He picked it up, observing the label on it that said “Break Room Gate Shutter”. If the map, and Leon’s memory, was correct, there was a gate that he and Claire saw when they first got to the station. It was hard to forget what happened when they opened the gate… Leon felt a bit sick when he thought about it. He wasn’t looking forward to what he would no doubt see when he went to open the gate.

In the relative safety of the break room, Leon sat down on one of the bunk beds and tried to contact Claire again.

“Claire? Are you there?”

He sighed, only hearing silence at the other end. He tried again.

“Claire? Are you ok? Please respond.”

Leon’s heart soared when the line on the other end crackled to life.

“Leon?”

“Claire!” He exclaimed, “Where are you? Are you hurt?!”

“No… Well, I was. But I’m fine now. Are you still in the station?”

“Yes, I’m in the break room.”

“Ok, I’m in the Chief’s office. It’s on the second floor, but it’s behind a shutter and the way I came in doesn’t work anymore.”

“I’ll figure it out,” Leon replied, “And if not, we could try lifting it. Is it safe where you are?”

“Yeah, doesn’t seem like anyone has been in here in a while.” Claire said.

“Ok, I’ll be up there soon. Sit tight.”

Leon turned off the channel and stood up. He was massively relieved hearing her speak after worrying for so long, but hearing that she had been hurt made him even more anxious to see her. He left the break room and made his way down the hallway. Part of the way down, a zombie suddenly appeared outside and began banging on the window next to him. He jumped, looking at the zombie groaning as it tried to break the glass. Claire had taken all of the wooden boards with her when they separated earlier, and he didn’t see anything in the hall that he could use to block the window with. He could only hope that once he was out of the zombies line of sight that it would stop banging on the window. He would have to come back later with some boards, he thought to himself.

Over the sound of the zombie throwing its arms against the glass, he heard something… different. Like something wet being torn, just a few feet away. He went forward as silently as he could, and peeked his head around the corner.

Two zombies were ripping a pair of disembodied legs to shreds, ignorant of Leon's presence mere feet from them. 

Elliot’s legs. That was where he died, he reminded himself. He wished he didn’t have to remind himself of things like that, but this was his reality in this fucked up city now.

He thought momentarily about using the grenade he found earlier, but decided against it. He could take down part of the hallway with that! If he did that, it could mean he wouldn’t have a way to meet up with Claire, or get the parts to get Ben out of jail and escape the city. He would just have to shoot them while they were distracted. 

He slowly made his way behind them, listening to the sickening sound of tearing muscles and flesh as he raised his handgun to one's head. Its blood mixed with Elliot's as two bullets pierced its skull in quick succession. The other one lazily looked up from its meal as Leon put a bullet in its skull as well. It twitched as it laid on top of Elliot's legs and the other zombies corpse, so he shot it again. When it stopped moving, he nudged the other one with his foot. When it didn't react, he put his gun away and looked at the wall for the fuse box. 

Next to the fuse box was a knife stuck in the wall, which he attached to his belt. He turned his attention to the fuse box, and put the fuse in the empty slot on the right. Leon waited for the shutter to rise completely, watching light slowly fill the hallway from the watchman’s room. 

When the door was halfway up, the top half of Elliot's corpse came into view.

He wasn’t expecting it to turn and look at him.

Leon gasped, taking a sudden step back as what remained of Elliot started to turn, scratching the floor as it struggled to move closer to him, organs dragging on the dirty floor. 

God, he wanted to close his eyes, pretend he wasn’t watching what would have been a fellow colleague try and eat him while his legs were completely disconnected from his body. 

But he couldn’t shoot a moving target with his eyes closed. 

He drew his gun and fired, piercing his shoulder first, but shattering a large chunk of his skull with the second shot. What remained of Elliot stopped moving and went slack against the ground.

Leon averted his eyes as much as he could as he entered the watchman’s room and stepped around Elliot.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” He said.

Elliot didn’t respond. He never would.

\-----------------------

Leon put the crank in the slot and started to turn it, watching the shutter rise with each turn. It took a minute, but he was able to get it to rise all the way. He left the crank in the slot as he went straight to the Chief’s office. He had a feeling he wouldn’t be needing it anymore. 

The only door at the end of the hall was the Chief’s office, according to his map. He stood in front of the door and knocked softly, not wanting to alarm her by just walking inside.

“Claire? It’s Leon.”

A few seconds later, she opened the door. A bright smile went across her face as she saw the rookie cop.

“Leon!” She said, opening the door fully to let him inside.

He smiled back, walking into the room as she locked the door behind them. He looked around the room as Claire walked past him to sit in one of the leather chairs seated around a large table. The walls and cabinets were decorated with taxidermied animals. A wolf, some gazelle heads, an armadillo, a crocodile head with some bottles in its mouth… It was a bit creepy if you asked him. He had never been in Chief Irons office before. He wasn’t sure if he would have given a good interview if he had so many dead animals looking at him while he tried to answer questions.

Leon averted his gaze from a fox that was staring at him from a cabinet ahead of him and sat down across from Claire. He hadn’t noticed that she had somehow gotten a bag of ice and was putting it to her temple. 

“Are you ok? What happened while you were gone?”

She sighed.

“Your police chief happened to me.”

“Wait, what?” He asked, “He did that to you?!”

First, Ben accused the chief of locking him in jail for trying to uncover some sort of dirt on him. Which didn’t sound anything like the just and upstanding chief he had heard so much about. But now Claire was saying the chief had hurt her? What the fuck?

“Lemme start from the beginning,” She said, pushing some stray hairs from her forehead, “After I went ahead, I was waiting for you near the elevator. I started poking around nearby to see if there was anything useful when I heard this weird noise. Like, a kid crying out.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“Yeah, shit. I went into that machinery room and found this little girl hiding. The moment after I found her this… monster-” She started gesturing with her hands, “Came out of nowhere and broke the walkway. Nearly caved my head in.”

Leon's heart sank at her words.

“This monster… Was it wearing a lab coat? And have a giant eye in it’s shoulder?”

Her eyes widened, and she lifted the bag of ice off her head for a moment, “You saw it?”

“Yeah,” He said, “Had to fight it, too.”

“Damn, I was hoping I had killed it.”

“It better be dead, with how many bullets the both of us put in it… But, the girl, was she ok?”

Claire nodded, “Yeah, she was fine. She wanted me to help her find her mom and I agreed. A kid all alone during all of this… I couldn’t just leave her by herself, y'know?”

“Of course.”

“But, anyways, we went up the ladder into the parking garage. But Chief fucking Irons came out of nowhere and drew a gun on me. He made Sherry-”

“Sherry?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah, sorry, that's her name. Irons made Sherry zip tie my wrists together and ordered her to go with him somewhere. And when she refused he pistol whipped me and stuck it in my face threatening to kill me. He ended up dragging her off while I struggled to cut the zip ties with some glass.”

She took the bag of ice off her temple, sitting it on the table, “I was so out of it that I didn’t think about radioing you… I ended up stumbling in here after finding an elevator in the parking garage and passing out after rubbing some herbs on my head. Only so much green herbs can do for a head injury. Sorry about that.”

“Claire,” He leaned forward a bit, “I can’t fault you for that. You had a head injury. I’m just glad you’re ok.”

Claire let a small smile cross her face.

“Thanks, Leon.”

He leaned back against the chair then, rubbing his forehead for a moment.

“But… The chief really did that to you? Hit you and kidnapped a kid?”

She nodded, “Yeah. I mean, the news always makes him sound like the nicest guy in the world but Chris has told me for so long that Irons is an asshole. Just wasn’t expecting him to assault me.”

“Oh… I see.”

Leon hadn’t been expecting his view of the chief to come tumbling down that night, but Ben’s accusation of the chief being a dirty cop must have been true. Only a crooked officer would do something like assault someone for no reason, zombie apocalypse or not. He just wished he was there to help Claire and the girl when they needed him. 

“Did you find a keycard? You need one to open the parking garage gate.” He asked, trying to get the thought of his almost boss out of his head.

Claire shook her head.

“Well, shit,” He said, “guess we’ll have to find those panels after all.”

“What panels?”

“I met this guy in the jail next to the parking garage- and a woman, too, actually. Not in jail, though… But I’m getting off track. He has a keycard, but he won’t let us have it until we let him out. But to do that, we need these special parts to unlock it.”

“I see… You said you met a woman, too?”

Leon explained to Claire what happened to him after encountering the monster in the machinery room. He told her about Ada saving him from the zombie dog, and meeting Ben in jail. He also mentioned how Ada left it up to him to find the power panels, which made Claire upset.

“This lady is apparently an FBI agent but just abandoned you to find these parts yourself? What the hell?”

He shrugged, “It’s safer for her to hide while I find them.”

“Leon,” Claire said softly, leaning forward and looking him in the eyes, “You’re sweet, but it sounds like this Ada person is just using you.”

“What? No, she wouldn’t do that…”

He blinked, “Wait, you think I’m sweet?”

She ignored his question, “You don’t know this woman at all! You don’t know if she wouldn’t do that! All she did was flash her badge at you, told you her name, and fucked off!”

“And saved my life.” He added.

She let out a small huff.

“Yes, she did that, too. Look, all I’m saying is that this just sounds shitty of her to do. And that she sounds kind of sketchy.”

He frowned, but didn’t reply. He knew Claire had a point.

She stood up, the leather chair creaking as she did, “My head is feeling a lot better now. We should look around this room and see if we can find anything useful.”

Leon stood as well, “Agreed.”

\-----------------------

There wasn’t much of anything in the chief’s office. There was some sub machine gun ammo that Claire took, but that was it. One of the doors led to a hall with a stuffed tiger inside that Leon forced himself not to look at. The room at the end of the hall was filled with cabinets of fine china and pottery, but what caught their attention was what seemed to be a keycard to the parking garage inside a small gated office. Both Leon and Claire tried to stick their hands through the gate, but no luck. To both of their dismay was what appeared to be the same power panel that Leon had seen in the jail, but was also missing two panels. The only good thing about it was that a note nearby mentioned that there should be a part in the 3rd floor east storage room and one in the clock tower, as the note he found earlier said as well.

Leon had found a painting that had a missing section on the back that looked exactly like her heart key that he had seen her use. She shrugged, saying she had found it on the table when she first went into Irons’ office. The only other thing they found was some high grade gunpowder, which Leon took. It reminded him that he should make some handgun ammo. When they entered the office again, Leon told Claire that he would make some for the both of them before they left. Claire agreed that it was for the best, and poked around the office while he made some. At one point, she opened a mini fridge under the chief’s desk and tossed him a water bottle, reminding him that they should take Ben a bottle. He took a few big sips from it before continuing.

Just as he was finishing up, Claire slammed her hands down on Irons desk.

“I can’t fucking believe that asshole!”

He jerked his head up from the sudden noise, startled out of his short reverie, “What’s wrong?”

“Irons was spying on my brother! And was even told to kill them! No wonder he went on vacation without telling me, he was scared for his fucking life!”

She shot her hand out, handing him a small stack of papers from across the room. He quickly goes over to her, taking the papers out of her hands and reading them as she walks away and rubs her face.

There was no denying it after Leon read the papers. Someone named ‘W.B.’ was paying Irons, and not for anything good, from what he could gather. And it sounded like whoever was messaging Irons in the papers was working for Umbrella, but on their own project. Something so important that he told Irons to kill any suspicious person outside his lab, no matter who they were… 

“But, why would this person care about the people who survived the mansion more?...” He muttered to himself.

“Because something happened,” Claire said, interrupting his train of thought, “I don’t know what, Chris never told me. I tried to get it out of him so many times, and he’d just end up snapping at me to drop it or hang up. I didn’t know what to think.”

Claire's eyes shot over to the papers in Leon’s hands.

“But now I know why. Something happened that Chris _couldn’t_ talk about. Or Irons would kill him because someone else told him to. I swear, when I find Irons after we get out of here…”

She trailed off, but was still visibly angry. Leon stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder. 

Claire seemed to calm down somewhat, the angry wrinkles between her brows fading from the touch.

“Sorry, I know that this isn’t what's important right now. We should try and get out of here first. But I’m taking these papers with me.”

“Of course. Although, we should make a detour first. That guy I met in the jail, Ben? He asked if I found any water bottles if I could bring it to him. We can just give it to him and leave.”

Claire nodded, and they left. They tried to see if they could get the elevator that Claire had mentioned didn’t work earlier to function, but it had somehow lost power. Leon told Claire that it probably had something to do with Ada redirecting the power in the parking garage, which made her groan. Leon agreed with Claire that it would have been very useful if the elevator still worked instead of having to walk the long way to Ben’s cell.

But as they headed into the main hall, Leon realized he had made a horrible mistake.

From the top of the stairs, Leon's eyes drifted to Marvin's covered corpse, unmoving on the couch. The white sheet was dark red from his cold blood, and some of his blood had dripped to the floor, making a small puddle at his feet.

Claire gasped under her breath at the sight. Leon wasn’t sure what to say.

“...It was what he wanted.” He said simply.

Claire didn’t say anything for a few moments.

“... I figured that's what was happening, honestly. I just… Didn’t think I would see him.”

She didn’t have to finish her sentence. Leon knew what she meant.

They walked to Ben’s cell in silence for the rest of the way.

\-----------------------

After boarding up the window with some boards Claire had, Leon moved the chair he sat in front of the door to the east central passage. Claire didn’t question it, just watching as he moved the chair out of the way. 

She also didn’t comment on Elliot’s corpse. He was grateful for that. He wasn’t sure if he could handle explaining to her that he watched him die twice.

Leon and Claire were prepared to encounter some zombie dogs, as Leon had explained to her what he had run into before he met up with her in Irons’ office, but they didn’t see any as they went to Ben’s cell. Leon swore he could hear dogs barking somewhere in the distance, however. No doubt that there were others somewhere nearby. They needed to get in and out before they came back. 

They entered the jail, walking straight to the back where Ben’s cell was. 

“Back so soon?” Ben asked, getting up to stand in front of the bars “Well, actually, that's good cause I just ran out of cigarettes-“

Ben was taken aback for a second as Claire came into his view, but quickly changed his expression from mild shock to a grin.

“Ms. Redfield! Fancy seeing you here, huh?”

“Wait, _you’re_ the reporter?!” Claire groaned beside Leon, “Great.”

“You know him?” Leon asked, confusion clear in his voice.

“I’d be disappointed if she didn't.” Ben said.

Claire tossed him a water bottle through the bars, hitting him square in the chest as she answered.

“He kept harassing my brother after his last S.T.A.R.S mission at the Spencer mansion nonstop. I’m surprised he didn’t get a restraining order.”

Ben, having been drinking from the bottle vigorously, only stopped to reply, “I have a job, y'know-“

“And then-,” She interrupted, “He tried harassing _me_ for information! At my college, my dorm, my fucking part time job! Nothing was sacred to him!”

Ben let the now empty water bottle fall to the ground and wiped his mouth, “In my defense, you and him are pretty close. It’d make sense to ask you next.”

Claire didn’t say anything, obviously mad that she had to meet the pushy reporter again in horrible circumstances.

Ben sighed, “Look, as much as my journalistic senses are tingling at the mention of the mansion incident, I would much rather get out of here first. Did you find those panels yet?”

“No,” Leon said, “We're going to look once we leave.”

“Great,” Ben replied, “I won't keep you then. I’ll just entertain myself while you do your thing.”

“Can you even pretend to be thankful?” Claire muttered to herself.

While Leon agreed, he wouldn't say that out loud. Although, speaking of the mansion, he did think of something to ask Ben.

“Ben, you said you knew something shady that Irons was doing, right? That’s the reason he locked you in here?”

Ben nodded.

Leon turned to Claire, “Can I show those papers to Ben for a minute?”

Claire seemed hesitant, but gave Leon the papers.

He stuck his hand through the cell, papers in hand, “Does this mean anything to you?”

Ben pushed his glasses up his nose, and flipped through the papers that Leon handed him. The more he read, the more shocked he looked.

Finally, when he finished, he stuck his hand out of the cell and gave Claire the papers back.

“Well,” Ben said, “I knew Irons was a dickhead, but… Jesus, this adds a new layer I didn’t know about.”

Ben started pacing around his cell, seemingly lost in thought.

Leon and Claire shared a look, before Claire interrupted Ben.

“Hey, earth to asshole? That mean anything to you?”

Ben stopped, looking at Claire, “Yes, that obviously means something to me. What it means is that I was missing an important layer in my investigation!”

He sighed, sitting down on the small bed in his cell, “I need to think about this. Mind leaving me alone so I can think?”

Leon blinked, a bit taken aback. Claire, however, reacted in a more visceral way.

“You’re locked in a jail cell, at our mercy while we try to get you out during a zombie outbreak.. And you want us to leave while you think about how Irons potentially killing my brother impacts your investigation?!” She nearly yelled.

“Yep.” Ben replied, “You have no idea what this means. Months of research I’ve been doing, and I had no idea something like _this_ was taking place. So yeah, I need a bit to think about what this means. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to you when you come back. It’s not like I’m going anywhere. If anything, I should thank you for showing me this.”

“...Are you actually going to say it?” She asked, annoyed.

Ben smiled.

“Nope.” 

He winked at her playfully. Claire shriveled her face in disgust, causing Ben to laugh.

\-----------------------

After leaving Ben’s cell, they went back to the east stairway and went upstairs. They found some handgun ammo and a flash grenade in a locker, which Claire and Leon took respectively. They also found some wooden boards, which lead them going downstairs to use in the hall next to the press room as they heard a zombie banging on the window earlier. Claire had previously had more wooden boards, but told Leon they broke during her fight with the monster in the machinery room.

They went into the east storage room next, and immediately ran into two zombies wandering in the clutter. Leon was able to take care of them with one blast of the shotgun on each of them. Leon had been starting to get a bit low on shells, but found a few shells on a random shelf. Claire also found some flame rounds for her grenade launcher as well. They found a blue herb close to a large gear in the middle of the room, which Claire picked. Both of them left the gear alone in favor of trying to open the door out to the third floor hallway with no luck. Claire remarked that it must be locked from the other side, which Leon agreed with.

Next, they went into a small room connected to the storage room, which Claire had to use her heart key on. Inside were many boxes on some metal shelves, but Leon nearly yelped when he turned his head and saw three armless mannequins to his right. Claire laughed at him, taking a knife out of one of their heads and attaching it to her belt. They also found one of the power panel parts on a small table in the corner. Hopefully the other one was in the library, as both notes that Leon and Claire found said.

They left the storage room and went out onto the balcony. It was still raining, the cold late September air chilling Leon as water started to soak both of them. A blue herb was sitting on a table outside, which Claire picked and took. 

Leon looked around, seeing a ladder to their right. They would be a few feet away from the burning helicopter if they went down, but Leon thought that there might be something useful nearby. He asked Claire if she thought it would be a good idea to go down there, to which she agreed. Claire went down first, as she was closest.

Leon waited till Claire got off the ladder at the bottom, and started to make his way down. He was only a few steps down when the ladder began to creak. He stopped, but it was too late. The ladder disconnected from the brick wall in an instant, sending him down to the ground. He landed on his back, and gasped out in pain.

Claire was on him instantly, crouched down beside him and touching his arm.

“Jesus, you ok?!”

Leon groaned, white hot pain radiating from his back to his arms as he tried to get up. She helped him, gripping his arm as he stood.

He rubbed his back, feeling the humongous bruise that was no doubt forming.

“I’m ok… Let's worry about it later. It's too wet to put anything on right now. We should look around first.” He said.

Claire looked like she wanted to argue against it, but didn’t say anything. He continued to rub his back as he looked at the helicopter still on fire. The rain water, for how long it had been pouring, was unsuccessful in putting it out. Leon looked above the burning wreckage, and noticed a large open drainage pipe located right above it. A lever on the brick wall next to them appeared to be connected to it, so Leon pulled it.

A sudden burst of water sprayed directly onto his head, soaking him even more than he had been.

Claire laughed out loud at the sight. Leon would have laughed too if his back wasn’t hurting like a bitch. Although he was glad one of them could find humor in the situation they were in.

“Sorry, sorry,” Claire wheezed, “I’ll pull myself together.”

He waved his hand, giving her a small smile as they started to look around. They found some handgun ammo on a bench, which Leon took. They couldn’t find anything that could put out the fire, so they went down the stairs. They found two green herbs, which they split between each other. As they approached the boiler room door, something started to bang on it. Leon was sure that there were zombies behind the door, so he and Claire stood next to the door, waiting for them to come out.

It wasn’t long before two zombies burst through the door, trying to look around for their potential prey before Leon took them down with a single shotgun blast. He also managed to blow a large hole into the boiler room door from such close proximity.

As Leon was making sure the zombies were dead, Claire looked behind where they had been standing.

“Hey, come look at this.” Claire told Leon.

He stopped what he was doing, going to where Claire was. She was standing in front of a large yellow lever, currently set to ‘R’. The only other option on it was ‘L’. Leon noticed that it was connected to a large pipe, which he guessed was a part of the drainage pipes up on the roof.

“Think we should try turning this?” She asked.

He nodded, watching her move the lever until it was firmly set on ‘L’. Once that was done, they went into the boiler room. It was a bit cluttered inside, with boxes shoved to one side of the room near some machines and some random papers on the floor, although Leon did find some gunpowder on a small wooden table near the janitor's room. After picking that up, they went inside. It was even smaller than the boiler room, with a storage box on the left immediately upon opening and a desk and cheap office chair on the right side of the room. But on the whiteboard on the wall in front of them was a green club key taped to it, with ‘Someone lose a key?’ written below it in marker.

Leon took the key off and put it in his pocket. He recalled seeing a room earlier that had a club symbol on it. No doubt this key would unlock it. They went back to the roof, and Leon pulled the lever from earlier for the second time.

Water flowed from the drainage pipe, sending steam up into the air as it put the fire out from the helicopter crash. It wasn’t long before all that was left was what remained of the helicopter. 

Leon couldn’t see the pilot’s body among the wreckage. His body must have been reduced to ash from the fire. It upset him knowing that the unknown pilot’s burial spot would be in the seat where he died, burned to ashes trying to no doubt escape the city.

“Well now that the fire is out, how are we gonna get through the helicopter?” Claire asked.

“The helicopter is still too hot from the fire,” He said, “So we can’t climb through it to the other side. Maybe the explosion from earlier made a hole big enough that we can get to the fire escape?”

“I don’t see much else we can do.” Claire replied.

They made their way into the the east hallway, turning the corner to face the helicopter-

And watched as a man lifted it up into the ceiling with one hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS HAPPENING! IT ONLY TOOK LIKE. MONTHS!
> 
> this is the result of me staying up till like 5 am every day for the last 5 days. ill edit this more later so im sorry if something doesnt make sense lol or if there are spelling errors... i feel like this is the worst chapter by far lol 🤔😖

**Author's Note:**

> comments always welcome :)


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